On the podcast this week, we welcome Andrew Thornton, Head of Advisory at Grant Thornton Bermuda. Andrew shares: an overview of his career journey from trainee accountant with Ernst & Young to joining Grant Thornton 20 years agomoving to Bermuda 2 years ago to run the advisory side of the businessthe outcomes of acquiring and merging with local firm, Arthur Morrishaving the ambition to grow from 20 people and seeking insurance experts to join the teamwhat makes Grant Thornton Bermuda a great place to worktalent development and career progression opportunities within Grant Thornton how he engages within wider aspects of island lifethe tips he’d give to someone moving to Bermudaand what he’d do differently if he had his time againConnect with Andrew Howie on LinkedIn or find out more at Grant Thornton Bermuda The Insurance Coffee House Podcast is brought to you by Insurance Search.We are a global Insurance Executive Search Consultancy, supporting Insurance and Insurtech businesses to attract and retain the very best insurance talent.Find out more about showcasing your employer brand as a guest on the Insurance Coffee House Podcast or sign up to our News and Insights. Or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter or InstagramInsurance Executive Search Consultants in USA, London and Bermuda. Copyright Insurance Search 2024 – All Rights Reserved.

On the podcast this week, we continue our Bermuda series by interviewing Jesse DeCouto and Tonia Morgan at Canopius Re. Chief Underwriting Officer, Jesse and Chief Financial Officer, Tonia talk about: their respective career journeys to joining Canopius Rewhere the business is now and plans for the future the culture and characteristics that make it a great place to work  their passion for mentoring and helping young people turn in to young professionals the international opportunities Canopius Re provides for high-performing talent how local insurance executives can develop a successful career on islandthe advice they’d give to someone considering a move to Bermudawhat they’d do differently if starting their careers over againConnect with Jesse DeCouto and Tonia Morgan on LinkedIn or find out more about career opportunities at Canopius Group. The Insurance Coffee House Podcast is brought to you by Insurance Search.We are a global Insurance Executive Search Consultancy, supporting Insurance and Insurtech businesses to attract and retain the very best insurance talent.Find out more about showcasing your employer brand as a guest on the Insurance Coffee House Podcast or sign up to our News and Insights. Or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter or InstagramInsurance Executive Search Consultants in USA, London and Bermuda. Copyright Insurance Search 2024 – All Rights Reserved.

On the podcast this week, we’re delighted to launch our new Bermuda Series by interviewing Katie Partington-Howarth, Chief Capital Officer at Ariel ReKatie talks to Nick Hoadley about: Her career background and joining Ariel Re in 2005The culture and characteristics that make it a great place to work  How she engages in wider aspects of Bermuda lifeThe opportunities Ariel Re provide for high-performers Her advice on how to build a successful career in Bermuda What she’d do differently if starting her time on island again   Connect with Katie on LinkedIn or find out more about Ariel ReThe Insurance Coffee House Podcast is brought to you by Insurance Search.We are a global Insurance Executive Search Consultancy, supporting Insurance and Insurtech businesses to attract and retain the very best insurance talent.Find out more about showcasing your employer brand as a guest on the Insurance Coffee House Podcast or sign up to our News and Insights. Or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter or InstagramInsurance Executive Search Consultants in USA, London and Bermuda. Copyright Insurance Search 2024 – All Rights Reserved.

This week, we are joined by Tara Foley who shares with us her journey to becoming the CEO of AXA, UK & Ireland and her passion for making a difference. The Insurance Coffee House Podcast is brought to you by Insurance Search.An international Insurance Executive Search Consultancy, supporting Insurance and Insurtech businesses in the UK, Bermuda and across the United States.Or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter or InstagramInsurance Executive Search Consultants in USA, London and Bermuda. Copyright Insurance Search 2024 – All Rights Reserved.

On this episode we interview Jose Luis (Pepe) Velasquez and find out how he has used his experience working at blue chip companies like Heineken to drive a high-performance culture at Mapfre USA.Connect with Pepe on LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jose-luis-velasquez-906560/on LinkedIn or find out more about Mapfre USA https://www.linkedin.com/company/mapfre/The Insurance Coffee House Podcast is brought to you by Insurance Search.We are a global Insurance Executive Search Consultancy, supporting Insurance and Insurtech businesses to attract and retain the very best insurance talent.Find out more about showcasing your employer brand as a guest on the Insurance Coffee House Podcast or sign up to our News and Insights. Copyright Insurance Search 2024 – All Rights Reserved.   Or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter or InstagramInsurance Executive Search Consultants in USA, UK and Bermuda.

Zimbabwe born and South Africa educated, Warrick Beaver started his working life as an HR professional in the fashion retail industry. “If you're talking about journeys to insurance, fashion and retail is probably as far away as you can imagine. I was taught that you were a retailer first and an HR professional second”, says Warrick.“The lesson learned was, 'Understand where the value creation happens and be as close to it as possible. Understand your business.' That commercial curiosity has always stayed with me. It has stood me in good stead, kept me engaged and helped me find impact, meaning, and alignment throughout my career.”On this episode of the Insurance Coffee House Podcast, Warrick delves in to his career journey and what he’s learned along his professional journey. Through retail and recruitment industry, FMCG manufacturing and information services, Warrick shares his experiences of M&A, business divestures and balancing his commercial and HR hats. He discusses his role of Chief People Officer and Fidelis Insurance Group’s novel operating model. “The hypothesis was that businesses should lend themselves to their core competencies. If that core competency is underwriting, then it should focus on underwriting and ensuring a relentless pursuit of execution and excellence.Conversely, the core competence in terms of capital management, balance sheet management, capital allocation, reserving, would also be best served if there was the same level of excellent focus and time and attention. Decisions can then be made with the clearest of intention, and there's no potential contradiction or conflict in terms of what you do from a capital management or from an underwriting point of view, because the two businesses are managed separately. So that's the hypothesis. We are in a long-term relationship with The Fidelis Partnership. They are focusing on what they do best, and we are focusing on what we do best.”With its growing presence in London, Dublin and Bermuda, Warrick discusses the culture at the business and whether bifurcation is a true USP to attracting top insurance talent.  “Culture is dynamic. It's ever changing. You can never put a pin in it and say, “We're done, victory is declared!” It is a constant evolution.We also see that in terms of our demographic, our employee base and what they’re looking for from an employer and the working experience. We've been able to assemble, very capable, experienced professionals from within the insurance market who have worked for much larger, more established organizationThis model represents something novel, unique and an opportunity for them to become part of something interesting. Of course there is a lot of uncertainty with a scale operation, but we have a deep heritage. We have some fantastic experience. We're a building brand, and it's enough to attract people who are well regarded.”Warrick emphasises what he looks for in insurance leaders coming for interview. “It's just as much a conversation on how that technical capability, experiences and skills are translated into value added. Don't spend your time talking about your accomplishments. We're going to take those as read.”As closing advice, Warrick says, “Understand your business. Be as close to the value-add inflection point as possible because you will feel relevant, get immediate feedback, and will be constantly evolving with the needs of the organization.”Connect with Warrick Beaver on LinkedIn or find out more about Fidelis Insurance Group The Insurance Coffee House Podcast is brought to...

“Many people you'll work with and meet in business will be happy to accept information and explanations in the way it's being presented to them.Some people you work with will have a real appetite to go one level deeper because they'll want to know the drivers of the things they are seeing. They'll want to have a proper understanding about how that part of the business or that part of the market or that customer behaviour really works”, says Steve. “My push would be to go one level deeper than that. When you work with people that want to understand not just the drivers but the drivers of the drivers or the footnotes of the footnotes, often that is where you find the opportunities that others have missed. One thing I am really passionate about is some of the best opportunities exist there. It's really worth going one level deeper to not just really understand your market, but to discover things that other people haven't and in a really competitive business, those are the things that can separate you.” On the Insurance Coffee House Podcast this week, Steve talks about how his early career working as an analyst on the equities trading floor in a Dutch investment bank, taught him about the importance of discipline and attention to detail.“But when businesses came to see us to talk about how their business was performing, I had a real feeling of envy. I really wanted to be on the other side of the table. I wanted to be in businesses and solving the kind of problems they were solving.” A move in to start-ups followed, providing the opportunity to work in high-performance, fast-moving environments. “Anyone who's had a career in the early-stage part of a business, will know that you get some real successes and you get some failures along the way as well. We had both.But I learned a huge amount, worked with some fantastic entrepreneurs and learned about thinking big.The other thing I got to see firsthand, that value can be created out of thin air. Working in a successful start-up or scale up will really teach you to see that with your own eyes and to know it can be done is quite a powerful thing to experience. It gives you a lot of confidence for the future.”Moving in to product leadership and general management roles at bigger, more mature businesses took Steve on a journey to joining insurance price comparison business Confused.com as COO in 2019, before becoming CEO in 2023.  Steve reflects on his leadership journey, saying: “I used to look at my career path almost like a game of Trivial Pursuit, where you were trying to collect all the skills that you needed to be the ‘rounded leader’. You’d go around the board, collect those wedges and when you had them all, you could move to the centre, and that's the game complete. But unlike trivial pursuit, when you move to the middle, you don't win the game, you just discover there's a whole new game below, and you start again.I realised that it’s going to be an infinite journey. Instead of just accepting it, it’s really learning to love the experience of learning new things.” In this podcast episode, Steve talks to host Nick Hoadley about:  if you acquire a lot of skills and experience, your next career move will be obvioushow price comparison businesses are the main distribution channel for UK general insurancewhy he looks for super smart people and insurance leaders who want to go one level deeper and challenge the givenswhy he wants Confused.com to be the place where people do the best work of their careersand the one lesson his career has taught him, he thinks everyone should learn“Whatever your career goals are, be open to the fact that the moment you hit them, there'll be a whole new mountain to climb. Learn to love that. Get yourself into the frame of mind of enjoying the...

“DE&I is one of the biggest challenges for the industry. For a lot of our clients in the US, it's one of their biggest priorities”, says Nick "Before we engage with a client, we really want to make sure they're set up for diverse candidates. It's so important for us as an insurance executive search firm, that if we move someone who's very successful into a new environment, that they're going to be set up for success there.And that internally, there are no barriers and people will have the same opportunity across the board. For us as a search firm, it's key for our processes to be as transparent and inclusive as possible. When we’re working on a mandate, rather than just going to a little book of contacts, that we actually do a thorough market mapping to identify every single person who could potentially do that role. What that gives us is a more diverse talent pool. The shortlist of candidates we provide is more diverse. When you've got more people in that process, you can scrutinize those candidates more and end up with a better-quality hire.”On the podcast this week, Nick shares his journey from corporate law to insurance broker to founding global insurance executive search consultancy, Insurance Search. “I was working for an insurance company. We were looking to hire great quality people, but were really struggling to get the candidates.I was working with some of the agencies, seeing some of the CV s that were coming in. It could be quite depressing and just thought, there's an opportunity here. I backed myself that I could do better. I've always been a real people person, helping people in whatever way I can. It just seemed like a really natural fit, putting businesses together with great insurance talent.”Nick highlights the challenges to launching an executive search consultancy and how he’s coped with adversity along the away. “We're still very fresh from it, the pandemic. We were doing very nicely as a firm, working with lots of good insurance companies who were expanding.But then the pandemic came along and the world changed.We went from all of our clients actively hiring multiple positions to pretty much zero overnight.That was a real trauma. But it gave me the opportunity to really reflect and decide where I wanted to take the business. We’d been doing quite a lot of senior, international work at the time, but we are also still doing some quite junior insurance roles, which was an area we weren’t enjoying as much.And so, we pivoted and really focused at the senior end of things.”Nick discusses the motivation behind launching the Insurance Coffee House Podcast as a way to highlight the breadth of opportunity across the insurance sector, and to learn from the experiences of C-level insurance leaders. He emphasizes the executive search, human capital consultancy and market intelligence services Insurance Search provides, both to global insurance brands as well as smaller, mid-market businesses. “Our core service is insurance executive search and finding senior leaders for insurance companies. As part of that work, we have a human capital consultancy where we very much look to align ourselves with our clients. Where they are as a business now and work with them to achieve those strategic objectives and where they want to be in 18 months, two years, five years.And we offer insurance market intelligence studies.We've got a great team of researchers, who are looking externally for our clients at what their competitors are doing, how those competitors are being successful, looking at some of the aspirational businesses that they want to be like in 24 to 36 months.”With Insurance Search seeking to make executive search more accessible, Nick highlights the types of roles the team works on.  “As well as C-level positions, we also work on...

“The strength of our culture was something we used in the presentations to analysts and investors”, says Daniel. “We did some work around our employee value proposition and we asked our colleagues, ‘Why do you work at Hamilton?’ The common theme was collaboration and that's how we came up with the phrase ‘In good company’. As part of the IPO, we used it as our overall company tagline to say, ‘You're in good company with Hamilton, whether you're a client, broker, stakeholder or investor.’”On the Insurance Coffee House Podcast, Daniel shares his career journey from the NatWest graduate programme, his varied roles at Munich Re to joining Hamilton Insurance Group six years ago. He talks about the transition from a larger, more corporate environment to starting his current role at Hamilton, with 120 people and $500m in premium in 2018. “Joining Hamilton, I was excited for the opportunity to be at a company, almost at its start and helping it build. It's very different to being at a large organisation. What excites people about joining Hamilton is that you feel you can move the needle.”The business has subsequently grown to 550+ employees, with $2bn in premium and listed on the NYSE in November 2023.    Daniel gives an overview of the core functions of the business today and his role of overseeing the HR function, internal and external communications, as well as developing the strength of culture Hamilton has become known for. “We firmly believe that having a strong culture is critical and a component of our overall underwriting success. Engaged employees are an essential part of Hamilton's success. They drive productivity and innovation, that will lead to the ultimate success of the company.”Daniel explains how Hamilton’s values of ‘Be smart, Be sensible, Be open, Be more’ underpin activity around recruitment, performance management and talent management, as well as the key role communication plays. Regular town halls at both group and local level, together with ‘Hamilton on a page’ lays out strategy and helps employees understand current performance and achieve our business imperatives of sustainable underwriting profit, strategic growth, technology enablement and being a magnet for talent.Daniel highlights the importance of collaboration and how the outcomes of staff surveys help address any team concerns. He shares his advice for leaders coming to interview at Hamilton and advises his insurance industry HR peers not to rush the hiring process if they’re unsure of a candidate, but to move with haste if they are. Daniel explains Hamilton’s DEI statement, ‘Open minds open doors’ and how welcoming and respecting differences, helps attract and retain the best talent. “We embrace all forms of diversity, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, but gender has been something we’re particularly proud of what we've been able to achieve.Of our total employee base, 45% are female. 36% of our Underwriting leads and Claims leads are female. There's always room for growth, but we're extremely proud of that progress we've been able to make in that area.”Daniel stresses the key leadership roles and influence of Pina Albo, Anita Kuchma, Megan Thomas and Gemma Carreiro at executive level. “Pina is the first female CEO of a Bermuda-based company to ring the New York Stock Exchange bell and Hamilton was the first woman-led insurance company to go public in 20 years.” Daniel emphasizes what he looks for an in an insurance executive search partner, including trust and third-party perspectives and insights. He concludes by adding the one lesson his career has taught him, he thinks everyone should know.  “There are always other forms of information that come through to you as a professional, but having good, solid data to help you make decisions is such an important...

“In our experience, a reinsurance deal was being profiled in a physical binder full of paper. I thought, ‘How good would it be if we could take risk or bundles of risk and make a profile for it’", says Ben."Think of all the information that you could attach to that profile. That was a very early concept. For a long time we debated, how this would work in the reinsurance world where we've got all these different parties with vested interests, and deals they like doing in a very particular way, with a very particular workflow.We just iterated and iterated on how you could create a system whereby these buyers, brokers, reinsurers could exchange profiles of the deals that they wanted to do.”On the Insurance Coffee House Podcast, two of Supercede’s co-founders, Ben Rose and Jerad Leigh, talk about their early career journeys and realisation of the breadth of opportunity within the insurance industry.They discuss the inspiration for launching Supercede, the mountain of iteration and calibrating constantly around the different elements, features and parts of the work flows within reinsurance deals.“We have a very mission driven culture. There such an obvious problem we're trying to solve. We're not inventing something for the sake of inventing it. We're not pursuing something, because it sounded nice.We've got a thing that everybody in reinsurance universally hates and wishes was better.”5x growth over the past 12 months, has put Supercede on track to triple again this year, with new clients, investors and top talent joining the team.Ben and Jerad explain the benefits and efficiencies Supercede offers to all stakeholders within reinsurance deals and their desire to create modern tools to free people up to do what they’re good at.“People want technology. It’s really important to have modern tools to free up the talent at a broker or underwriter so they can do the jobs they're actually meant to be doing and not the sort of janitorial work instead”, says BenAttracting the right talent is critical for business growth and Jerad explains what they look for when hiring.“Testing for culture is obviously really important. People who are familiar and comfortable working at a company of this size.But I think it's really important to test for people who are principled thinkers. You have to have people who are willing and able to look at the variety of challenges that are being brought to the business and the factors that are involved and make decisions based on principles of what is best and most important and most thoughtful at that time.Certainly, a don't hire assholes rule should apply, because when you're sub 50-100 people, bad individuals or people who don't really fit can bleed across the organisation.You have to be very thoughtful in those first 25-50 hires, making sure you're retaining a quality of character.You have to be intentional, to phrase and present questions that are trying to root out what you're looking to solve for.Over the last half dozen years or so, there's a real belief that people can thrive in an environment that's a start-up.Some people can, and some people can’t. You have to identify what you're trying to test for and present questions and case studies through your hiring process that will allow you to distil down to the individuals that actually can thrive.”Highlighting which other insurtech businesses inspire them, Jerad cites hyperexponential as a prime example. “I think their team does a great job. I really rate how they hire and how they set roles for the things that they're trying to solve for.Like us, they're taking a core problem that sits within the underwriting units of businesses and giving tools to help those underwriters do that work more effectively.There's this concept or fallacy of, ‘If you build it, they will come’. A lot of software companies...

“When you hire for specific experience, then you're always going to have to hire for somebody within the industry”, says Nicola. “When you break it down to what are the specific jobs to be done, what are the skills that are required to do those jobs, often those skills are industry agnostic.There are clearly some examples where that's not the case, but there are many examples where it is the case, and if we can start to do that, then that opens a whole world of new opportunities to new and different talent. But it takes intentional effort.”On this episode of the Insurance Coffee House Podcast, Nicola talks about her not planning her career journey and saying ‘yes’ to exciting opportunities. Having significant industry experience in pharmaceuticals and private banking, including 17 years at ING, Nicola joined Hiscox in September 2022. Headquartered in Bermuda and with 3,500 employees in 14 countries, Nicola explains that she was hired to transform the HR function, to make it scalable, to elevate it, to become a more strategic partner to the business. “We're guardians of the employment proposition, of the culture and therefore the experience that each of those 3,500 colleagues has while working here. It's a real privilege.One of the first things I did when I joined was to change the title from HR to People. People are humans, they shouldn't simply be considered as resources. Language really matters.”Nicola describes the company’s growth ambitions in the US under the stewardship of recently appointed CEO, Mary Boyd. She also highlights how her own career experiences have shaped her passion for people and inclusivity, as well as how leadership set the tone.   “Ensuring we've got the best talent in position, means being an inclusive company. One which values diversity and ensures people feel psychologically safe to fully contribute.We know this type of environment is when people do their best work and there's real evidence linking it to business performance.But my experience of living and working abroad has taught me that it's really nice to believe these things, but it takes intentional effort to make them a reality for people.”Nicola shares how getting diverse talent is one thing, but setting them up for success is another. She emphasizes the key role data plays in DEI strategies and how it can help identify specific issues in delivering it, as well as why she’s a huge believer in transition planning and rapid support around diverse talent. Nicola explains how Hiscox is investing in 6 employee network groups, why she believes they need to be inclusive and engage with allies, and how the business is building up its own diverse junior talent pipelines through apprenticeships and early careers initiatives. Highlighting the need to build diversity into all of Hiscox’s processes and tooling, Nicola says, “We need to make it easy for people. The shortlists and the panels, our talent acquisition colleagues just need to make sure those processes are in place and hiring managers don't even need to think about it.”Nicola gives her advice to insurance leaders coming to interview at Hiscox and encourages her insurance industry peers to cast the net wide when looking for the best insurance talent. “Start before you need to so that you're not in that crisis, urgent rush situation and also be very specific about the jobs to be done in the role and matching the skills needed to those jobs.” She concludes by sharing the importance of trust when working with an insurance executive search partner and the one lesson her career has taught her, she wants everyone to learn. “You cannot think your way in to new behaviours. You have to take action. There's a book called ‘Act fast and fix it’, but that is such great advice. I would take progress over perfection every day.” Connect with Nicola...

“We talk a lot at Howden around not just coming to work, but coming to build a business. It really allows people to kind of have that sense of ownership, that sense of purpose and really allows people to feel like they're part of what they're building”, says Charlotte. “They understand it and can take a lot of pride. It’s a really different mindset, that feeling of ownership, working as part of our team, collaborating for the good of our clients. Incentives can drive those behaviours, so a big piece for us was making sure that our combined incentive scheme drives really good collaborative behaviours and decision-making.”On the Insurance Coffee House Podcast, Charlotte shares her insurance career journey from RSA intern, her stint at Guy Carpenter before joining Hyperion Insurance Group, now Howden. She discusses the impact of moving from a larger, more corporate environment to a smaller, growing business. &nbsp; “Howden at the time was a much, much smaller business and a much less established HR function, which is where the real excitement was and a huge opportunity.You didn't have all of the things you were used to working with in very established centres of expertise. It was a really good shift to start looking at what does the business need, what does the business want?From an HR perspective, you're building things and doing things that are really fit for purpose.”Charlotte highlights Howden Re’s accelerated growth story and her expanding remit. The business has grown from 400 employees in 10 countries when she joined in January 2023 to 900 in 35 countries today. &nbsp;&nbsp; She emphasizes how the reinsurance business is being purposefully different for its clients and people as well as leveraging the power of the Howden Group. Charlotte talks through the TigerRisk merger, making the integration of the two businesses as seamless as possible and helping people in the business do what they’re good at. &nbsp;She shares how having start-up energy, yet being a global, established business is helping attract and retain the best insurance talent. “Our rates of organic growth are outpacing the market. We're having massive amounts of talent joining us. But our retention of talent is really high, and we see people progressing quickly through the business as well.This isn't a business that you have to wait for someone to leave a role or you have to wait for there to be space. It's a business that is growing and that creates space for people to grow with it.”&nbsp;Charlotte gives her advice to insurance executives coming to interview, encouraging them to talk about what they want to do, not dwelling on what they’ve done in the past. &nbsp;She encourages her insurance industry HR peers to, “Make it obvious you want people to join you and be available to them.” Highlighting the importance of working with an insurance executive search partner who challenges the recruitment function in its thinking, not just when things don’t go to plan, Charlotte says, “I'm a big believer in when things go really well, looking at what made them go really well, how do you embed that and scale it.”Charlotte points out how the HR team is using tech to balance making the recruitment process as seamless but also as human as possible. &nbsp;In conclusion Charlotte challenges us to think about where we want [our career] to sit in a changing insurance industry and encourages us to never stop learning. Connect with Charlotte Hubble on LinkedIn or find out more about Howden ReThe Insurance Coffee House Podcast is hosted by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-hoadley-78a498143"...

“It's a fantastic opportunity to build something for yourself but within an established business. It’s very much engaging with customers and driving dialogue around their search requirements”, says MartinBut it’s also supported by a world class centre of excellence for delivery, so they can really focus on driving those relationships, identifying opportunities and doing a comprehensive handover to the delivery team that we have here. It frees them up to drive those relationships and customer interactions, knowing there will be a delivery team behind them.”On the Insurance Coffee House Podcast, Martin talks about: Why the relationship-based recruitment industry resonated with him. What drew him in to the insurance executive search arena and why making a difference to people’s lives and enabling them to be successful is important to him. The Managing Partner Program at Insurance Search – what it is and who it’s for. &nbsp;“The program, it's really aimed at ambitious and high performing insurance executives or insurance recruitment consultants who are motivated to build their own business.It’s for insurance executives who may want to use the contacts and experience they've built up across their career to build something for themselves.We’ll enable them to launch, build and scale a business with ongoing support.”Martin highlights the support on offer to those who might be looking for more autonomy in their careers. “Sometimes when you're in a large corporate environment, you have to live with [other people’s] decisions. As a corporate citizen, you have to go with them. Here's your opportunity to do things differently.It’s either a current or former insurance executive that has a network that they could leverage and bring that gravitas to building out something for themselves, but in an environment where they're going to be provided both onboarding and ongoing support.”Martin describes the key attributes he looks for in a first conversation with a prospective insurance executive or senior recruiter. “Credibility is absolutely essential. Honesty, transparency and excellence, those shared values are really key as is the industry experience.Having energy, an appetite to build something for themselves and someone that's comfortable selling solutions.”Emphasizing the strategic locations where Insurance Search is looking to attract, Martin says: “We're very open to all locations across the US, but some places that jump out are New York, Boston, Atlanta. From a state perspective, Florida, Texas and California and we’re open to talking to people who are very active in the London market. All the key insurance hubs.”In conclusion, Martin shares a key lesson his career has taught him. “When I’ve found myself professionally in a situation where there's some level of adversity - delivering some bad news or a conversation I’d rather not have - what I've found is some of the strongest relationships I've built, have come from that situation. Whether it's a candidate or a client, adversity can really bring people together."To find out more about the Insurance Search Managing Partner Program, connect with Martin Blake on LinkedIn, email [email protected] Insurance Coffee House Podcast is hosted by&nbsp;Nick Hoadley, CEO of&nbsp;Insurance Search.We are a global Insurance Executive Search Consultancy, supporting Insurance and Insurtech businesses to attract and retain the very best insurance...

“We wanted to make sure that there were slates, they were diverse and had all the groups represented. It isn't a case of trying to stop someone from getting something they deserve. What you're trying to do is make sure these other groups get the opportunities they deserve", says Don."I'm not a believer that we favor one group or another. I'm just a believer that everyone should have an opportunity. Because we're just human beings and we follow patterns of behavior, we're not necessarily inclined to give everyone an opportunity.Most of what we focused on was really just creating a more holistic opportunistic environment.” On the Insurance Coffee House Podcast this week, Don talks about: his journey from CFO and Sales to CHRO and the 4 key factors that attracted him in to the insurance industry creating an institutionally consistent employee experience with opportunities for alldriving DEI change based on the evidence of data to create hope and purposemeeting, coaching and exposing underrepresented groups to development and promotion opportunitiesbalancing beautiful traditions with a need to be modernize and not being able to town hall your way to change the importance of understanding and representing clients’ cultures and communitiesthe scope of his role, covering HR, people and operations, as well as managing a team of 500-600 &nbsp;his advice for leaders at interview and why he believes we’re going to become a skills-based economy “The most important thing people need to do, whether it's my HR colleagues or people interviewing for roles, is to make sure you understand the relevant experiences and skill sets that are needed. Roles and titles are going to become less important. Skills, capabilities and experience are going to be what rules the day.We're going to become a skills-based economy, especially as things get to be more technology driven.”Connect with Don Robertson on LinkedIn or find out more about Northwestern Mutual The Insurance Coffee House Podcast is hosted by&nbsp;Nick Hoadley, CEO of&nbsp;Insurance Search.We are a global Insurance Executive Search Consultancy, supporting Insurance and Insurtech businesses to attract and retain the very best insurance talent.Find out more about showcasing your employer brand as a guest on the Insurance Coffee House Podcast or sign up to our News and Insights. Copyright&nbsp;Insurance&nbsp;Search&nbsp;2024 – All Rights Reserved.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

“Given the potential of AI, we should all be focused on ensuring it's part of our strategic roadmap. It is an excellent tool that is going to allow us to rethink, reimagine how we deliver products, services and experiences to our client base”, says Prashant. “Is it machine learning? Is it deep learning? Is it unstructured data? Is it predictive models? What is it that you really want to achieve?While it's powerful, it requires other catalysts to function. You can't start building a roof and then look at the foundation.&nbsp; Building the right data foundation, having a robust change management plan and then ensuring there are business use cases that are aligned with the outcome.”On the Insurance Coffee House Podcast this week, Prashant discusses: starting his career for a business outsourcing processing company over 20 years ago in India transitioning in to managing processes and people mostly in P&amp;C specialty lines and understanding the insurance lifecycle, from acquisition to claims being part of the mission to make MSIG USA a data-driven insurerchange management and its impact on people, infrastructure and day-to-day operationsAI requiring other catalysts to function properlyadding skills and embracing the AI implementation journey what he looks for in an insurance executive search partnerbeing entrepreneurial and keeping a smile on your faceand the one lesson his job has taught him, he wants everyone to learn“Change is hard. We use different terminologies in an organization to express our goals, objectives and why we are doing it. But it all boils down to one thing and that is change. Think about what you're doing as change and keep that in mind, because if you lead with that, it helps you understand how to increase adoption and how to make change stick.”Connect with Prashant Hinge on LinkedIn or find out more about MSIG USAThe Insurance Coffee House Podcast is hosted by&nbsp;Nick Hoadley, CEO of&nbsp;Insurance Search.We are a global Insurance Executive Search Consultancy, supporting Insurance and Insurtech businesses to attract and retain the very best insurance talent.Find out more about showcasing your employer brand as a guest on the Insurance Coffee House Podcast or sign up to our News and Insights. Copyright&nbsp;Insurance&nbsp;Search&nbsp;2024 – All Rights Reserved.&nbsp;

“Flexibility has been key. We've worked really hard to figure out, how do we meet the commitments to our customers, but also empower our employees to have the work experiences that they're looking for and that are a good fit for their families”, says Angie, as she discusses how Safety National are breaking down the barriers to inclusivity. &nbsp;“We offer four weeks of paid caregiver leave to our employees. We’ve also enhanced our benefit offerings for adoption and now have some financial reimbursement that apply to the costs associated with adoption and we also added financial benefits for fertility.However employees might be trying to start their families, our goal is to help support them on that journey.” On the podcast this week, Angie shares her career journey from law into insurance. Her role overseeing all HR operations and leading a team of 26 HR professionals at Safety National. Founded in 1942, Safety National has 700+ employees in 27 States and is part of the Tokio Marine family. Angie discusses the impact of flexible working patterns on talent retention and reducing staff turnover. &nbsp;She highlights how the business is supporting employees in the key life moments of adoption, fertility, menopause and care-giving. Angie emphasizes the importance of being your authentic self when coming in for interview, her advice to her industry HR peers and why relationships matter. When selecting an insurance executive search partner, Angie says:“It's understanding our business and our customers, what we're trying to accomplish and then also making sure that they are bringing diverse candidates to us. Diverse in all aspects, their experiences, background and education.”Angie talks about the company’s two-year strategic technology transformation to support recruitment and launching an intern program to attract early career insurance talent. And concludes by sharing one lesson her career has taught her, she wants everyone to learn. “Empathy. We're all just human. Most of us have to work to support our families and there isn't anything that can't be figured out if we all treat each other with respect and professionalism.”Connect with Angie Schaefer on LinkedIn or find out more about Safety National The Insurance Coffee House Podcast is hosted by&nbsp;Nick Hoadley, CEO of&nbsp;Insurance Search.We are a global Insurance Executive Search Consultancy, supporting Insurance and Insurtech businesses to attract and retain the very best insurance talent.Find out more about showcasing your employer brand as a guest on the Insurance Coffee House Podcast or sign up to our News and Insights. Copyright&nbsp;Insurance&nbsp;Search&nbsp;2024 – All Rights Reserved.&nbsp;

“The blend between work and life is really blurred. It's important for employees to step back and have a good sense of purpose, belonging and balance”, says Jennifer. “We're sharing our expertise and our innovation. It's our employees who are doing that. No matter what position somebody is in, every day they're making something possible, whether it’s external or internal clients they're supporting. Every single one of our employees has their own life. They're working hard and smart for Arch, but they have to find that balance.”On the podcast this week, Arch Capital Group’s Chief Human Resources Officer talks about: joining Arch 5 years ago, following leadership roles Accenture, The Hartford and Voya Financial leading Arch’s Global HR function with 6,500 employees, spread across Bermuda, US, UK, Europe, Australia and the Philippines &nbsp;enabling possibility and managing the blend of work and personalpost-pandemic wellness, managing stress and burnoutchanging priorities in the career lifecycle her advice for leaders coming to interview what she looks for in an insurance executive search partnerthe tech and talent attraction tools Arch uses to create a talent communityhelping people adapt to change and succeedand one lesson her career has taught her, she wants everyone to know“You cannot make everyone happy. You’re often not going to be the most popular person in the room if you’re driving change.But if you lead with your own leadership values and the company’s values, you’re going to be fine.”Connect with Jennifer Centrone on LinkedIn or find out more about Arch Capital GroupThe Insurance Coffee House Podcast is hosted by&nbsp;Nick Hoadley, CEO of&nbsp;Insurance Search.We are a global Insurance Executive Search Consultancy, supporting Insurance and Insurtech businesses to attract and retain the very best insurance talent.Find out more about showcasing your employer brand as a guest on the Insurance Coffee House Podcast or sign up to our News and Insights. Copyright&nbsp;Insurance&nbsp;Search&nbsp;2024 – All Rights Reserved.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

“There is this misconception that the only way to grow or advance is to move into leadership. Some people just don't want that or aren’t sure”, says Andrea. “We want to give people an experience who aren't sure if they want to. We'll find opportunities to allow them to try their hand in things like the mentorship program, where they have an unofficial way of helping to grow talent.”On the Insurance Coffee House Podcast this week, Andrea shares her career journey in HR.“It all started with a knack for numbers and data. I was drawn into the world of compensation because it beautifully combined my analytical side with that human aspect. In compensation, you have to know the business inside and out, you have to know how your sales people are motivated, how the company earns money.I always found myself really closely connected to our leaders in the business and working on programs to incentivize and drive performance in the organization.”Andrea discusses what she learned from being part of staffing business, TrueBlue, where she rose from Director of Compensation &amp; Benefits to Chief People Officer over 12.5 years. She joined AssuredPartners as Chief Human Resources Officer in June 2023 and highlights the transition from staffing to insurance.&nbsp; “One of the things that I was drawn to at AssuredPartners was their unwavering dedication to people. There's such a strong connection to fostering a culture of learning and development and that's something that really resonated with me.Believe it or not, there’s a lot of similarities.&nbsp; Whether it's on the staffing side or on the insurance side, you really need to know your customer, what impacts them.In insurance, the thing that is really compelling is there's such an incredible tie to protecting people's livelihoods. Whether it's their business, their health, their employees.There's something really heartwarming about helping people protect the things that are most important to them.”Based in the US, UK and Ireland, with just over 10,000 employees, Andrea shares her passion for nurturing and advancing talent at AssuredPartners. “I am incredibly passionate about ensuring there's a clear path and trajectory for their growth and the importance of our employees feeling valued, recognized and knowing their company envisions a future alongside them.Discussing the initiatives to foster growth and development, Andrea says, “Our mentorship programs are game changers. There's something truly magical about pairing up employees with seasoned pros.And we're cooking up something extra special this year, which like a Master's degree in AssuredPartners leadership. It's almost like a VIP experience, tailored just for them and their success.We also recognize there's another piece of the puzzle, which is heavily focused on building content and experiences for our individual contributors. It makes our employees fiercely loyal.”&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Andrea highlights that developing in your career doesn’t always equate to going in to a leadership role. “When it comes to fostering growth and development, there's more to it than just your typical learning programs. First off, there's the structural piece around job or role architecture. These give employees that framework for career paths and for development. A road map that helps show them exactly what they need to do to move up that ladder.For those who really do want to help us grow to the next level, it’s really helping them to learn how to be a leader.”Andrea showcases the outcomes the business has seen as a result of learning and development initiatives. “In 2023 we promoted over 550 people in our organization with 77% of those being women.Our employees are highly engaged and we have very low voluntary turnover...

“A lot of businesses talk about it, but do they really analyse what they need to do to build it? We've spent a lot of time thinking about what high performance looks and feels like within the context of a turnaround”, says Karen. “When I joined the business, I prioritized improving the culture, establishing values that really mean something, as well as working with Scott Egan (CEO) to ensure we've got the right leaders at every level that exude those values.We've created a really strong accountability culture. I think the key to making sure culture change sticks is integrity." On the Insurance Coffee House Podcast this week, Karen shares her 30-year HR career journey. Starting in insurance, she has moved through some of the most recognizable brands in insurance, financial services, hospitality and media, before returning to insurance with roles at Saga Plc and RSA.&nbsp; She joined SiriusPoint in November 2022. Karen discusses working across a wide variety of sectors, and how she has found transitioning back in to insurance. “When I started my career, for many insurers, there wasn't a big focus on culture and values. People talked about it, but I don't think they did it as well as we did it in hospitality and retail.I think in the past, in in financial services, technical skills have tended to be rewarded with bigger and bigger roles, and I felt that the leadership aspects were secondary.What I found in retail, hospitality and also media, is because the customer is just so central and critical, there's just much more focus on leadership of the people, the values and the culture within the business. It's just such a heartbeat of the business at every level in those industries. I'm a massive believer in values and culture, and I love being part of businesses where these are really central. I think that's become true, probably now more so in the insurance industry than it was when I started. That's certainly true for SiriusPoint.”Karen explains how some of her best experiences have come through the tough times and the importance of HR’s relationship with the CEO. “The relationship I have with Scott and other bosses I've worked really well with, are where you've got mutual respect but sometimes differences of opinion.That’s where the real spark comes. Sometimes we come at things with different opinions and we'll explain them to each other.But we'll end up in a different place, and it's a better place than either of us had thought of. That ability to challenge with mutual respect and actually stand your ground is so important.” Headquartered in Bermuda, with offices in New York, Liege, London, Stockholm and Zurich, Karen gives insight in to SiriusPoint and the ambition to be a best-in-class insurance business. “We're a global underwriter of insurance and reinsurance. With over $3billion capital, our business lines include accident and health, aviation, space, casualty, credit, energy, marine, property and life insurance.Our global headcount is around 1000. In terms of growth, we really want to become a top performing reinsurance and insurance company in the coming years. Our aim is really to be among the names who consistently outperform the market year on year.”Karen emphasizes how creating a high-performance culture is more than an HR task, as well as the role integrity plays. &nbsp;“From day one, our CEO has made building a high-performance culture, one of our executive leader leadership team’s top priorities. We've created real integrity around what we say we're going to do and what we're actually doing. If there's any mismatch there, people see through the cracks and they just lose trust very, very quickly. My strong belief is that culture can be built. But culture can also be damaged in a nanosecond. If you don't have integrity, you can just lose trust so...

“We learned a lot early on and we continue to learn as we scale the organization remotely. Some of the key things are over communicating. Sometimes you're having a few more meetings to feel that personal connection”, says Vikki. “We've set up mentor programs, our summit leadership where you're partnered with another leader in the organization. If you're interested in growing your career, whether that's within your team or learning more about other teams, they have one-on-one mentoring sessions and group mentoring sessions. We formed, ERG groups and really started making sure that we're celebrating the diversity of our employees. All of those things help people feel really connected.”On the podcast this week, Vikki shares her 25-year HR career journey. “I began in the recruiting space, before I expanded my responsibilities to include employee relations, compensation and benefits, succession planning and employee engagement. I eventually made the shift from the staffing industry into the start up space.Someone recommended I connect with Kyle, our CEO. I did not think I was going to be jumping up and down about insurance. Shortly after I met him, I, I came home and I said, ‘Wow, I'm actually really excited about insurance.’”Vikki joined Clearcover as VP of People in 2019.&nbsp; At that stage the business had 45 employees. She became Chief People Officer in 2022. As an insurance company, Clearcover has scaled to over 500 and is using technology to transform customer experience. “The tech start-ups I've been part of, the technology was the actual product. Insurance, that is ultimately what our product is, but the technology behind it is really what's driving us to be different.” &nbsp;Vikki explains what’s enabled the business to scale so successfully. “We launched in California, then in Illinois. Once we got through those first two, we really started launching all over the US, trying to scale the organization as far as, ‘How do we get into more states? How do we offer Clearcover to more customers in as many places as we can?’ In the beginning, we outsourced our claims and our customer service teams and since then, we've brought those in house, which has accounted for a lot of our growth.”As for future plans, Vikki says, “The goal hasn’t changed. Our mission is to be a generational insurance company, powered by leading technology and innovation, really leveraging AI to do that as well.Offering an experience to the customer that is seamless and hopefully less stressful for them if they have a situation where they are in an accident.”With Clearcover’s headcount having grown tenfold, Vikki discusses building an HR function to handle the business scale. Vikki highlights how Clearcover have embraced a remote-working model without compromising the cultural values. She discusses how the remote model has impacted hiring and impacted diversity. “Truly, it's really opened up a world of opportunity for us by being able to hire remotely. It's helped us diversify our workforce. We continue to strive to improve at all levels of the organization, but we've made tremendous strides because we’re able to recruit people from all over the United States. We aren’t limited to a small talent pool in one geographical area.”Discussing how team members are encouraged to switch off in a remote world where the boundaries between work and down time are sometimes blurred. “When employees start, they get a stipend to set up their workspace, to make sure they're set up for success and they have a space available to them.We understand that people have kids, dogs, spouses that are working in their home too. It's helping people find that right balance. Maybe having a headset is super important to them or being able to work from a coffee shop during a crazy period of the day. Those are things we can be...

The opportunities are vast. Hundreds and hundreds of companies with a physical presence here and the jobs to go with it. It's important that all Bermudians remember that we're not just competing within Bermuda and our small country, we're competing on a global scale”, says Kirsten.“We are an exceptionally well-educated island. It's critical there are opportunities for Bermudians. And that Bermudians can see themselves in the industry and see the example of other Bermudians. This is global level competition.”On the podcast this week, Kirsten tells how she’s spent her entire 25-year career in Bermuda. &nbsp;With experience in broking and underwriting, Kirsten shares details of her double-headed role for Willis Towers Watson in Bermuda. “We have three teams in Bermuda, a Broking team, our Actuarial Consulting team and our Captives team. My geography leadership, I view it as accountability to them to make sure that we have the operations and the facilities, they need to run their businesses.The other hat I have, is leadership of our broking unit, the nuts and bolts on the insurance side.” &nbsp;Kirsten discusses the insurance ecosystem in Bermuda and states the only thing micro about the island is the geography. “There's a robust ecosystem that goes beyond just the underwriting roles or the broking roles. There are opportunities in actuarial captives, but there's also lawyers, accountants, marketing services that support this entire ecosystem and the Bermuda economy. Insurance and reinsurance and the supporting services are at the heart of it.”Kirsten shares WTW’s future plans and working in the local Bermudian market, with its importance in the global marketplace. “We're in growth mode. We have new dynamic leadership in North America that's gotten us focused on growth and accountability. We're looking to reorganize ourselves along the industry focus that is core to how our clients manage and view their own risk. That really is at the core of our strategy. I find myself often having to translate Big Willis to Bermuda and translate Willis Bermuda to Big Willis as I call it. Our employment law isn't the same as in the US or UK. Our regulatory structures might not be exactly mirrored so that translation work can be time consuming.I really love that I've been given the platform to be able to do it. &nbsp;Having the seat at the table when you’re little old Bermuda is exceptionally important because we are pretty core to being able to deliver on our promise and commitment to our clients.”Kirsten discusses her area of passion, something she battled with early on in her career. “It was hosting an underwriting meeting as a young underwriter. &nbsp;I was nervous. I had moments where I couldn't speak.For a confident, outspoken person not be able to use my voice because of the nervousness of being the center of attention in a speaking setting was a shock.“Me and a group of women got together. It started with a survey because, how many other women feel like this? And how do they grapple with it? We put out a survey to the market. Roughly 80% of women are nervous speakers. 80% of them avoid speaking as a result. Think of all that subject matter expertise that is lost because of nerves.” To combat this issue, Kirsten was involved in setting up ‘We Speak’ to help women and teens in Bermuda to learn the value of public speaking and project their voices. “We are not insurance or reinsurance specific; we help develop their voice in whatever sphere is necessary for them. It could be giving a TED talk for one person, but for another, maybe someone more like me, it's just being able to host an underwriting meeting and ask your questions without going red in the face. It’s meeting people where they are. We have a coaching approach, where we have one coach for every five women. It's an exceptionally

“We’ve got to deliver financial results and profitability, but you’ve got to be thinking about the way you can do that most efficiently too”, says Lisa, describing what a high performance culture means to her. &nbsp;“High performance is people being clear on what's expected of them, delivering that and then some, because they want to. It’s constantly improving and trying to do better.We make mistakes sometimes too and that’s ok. Let’s learn from it. It's about a learning mindset.” On the podcast this week, Lisa talks about transitioning from a 17-year career at Morgan Stanley to joining AXIS Capital 8 years ago as Head of Rewards.&nbsp; Now Chief People Officer, Lisa highlights the changes in the business over the past year. “We're excited about where AXIS is headed. We're certainly transforming as a company. We've got a new CEO in the past year. He's brought in some new leaders and we're really trying to refocus what HR is focused on to drive business results.”Lisa discusses the type of talent AXIS is looking to attract. “We want to attract people that are excited to help shift the company's evolution. People who bring their expertise and skills, new insights and ways of working.Our world is changing every minute. Things are evolving and changing. &nbsp;AI is on the horizon; digital focus is on the horizon. We certainly still need specialty insurance expertise. That never really goes away. But how we work and the systems that we have access to, that's all shifting. You need people that can see a future vision.”Lisa emphasizes some of the initiatives at AXIS to support the growth of high-performance culture. “Clarity around goals and what's expected. Our goal setting process for 2024, we spent a lot of time really reinforcing what ‘good’ looks like, the role managers play in setting clear goals with their employees so that we're all marching towards the same outcome.And we’re going to do a body of work around culture and renovating our culture.We’ve got new leaders around the table. Bringing that group together to redefine what AXIS wants to be known for. What are our values as we move forward? What do those leadership behaviors look like? What do we want to reinforce within our organization, model for the rest of the organization and hold people accountable for.There’s an energy around the organization, you can just feel it. People are excited about what we can deliver on. We've got great talent here. It's unlocking the best in what people can do and bringing that to life.” Lisa clarifies what she looks for in insurance leaders coming for interview at AXIS. “Be your authentic self. Ask a lot of questions. Be curious, be open minded. Don't make assumptions. Understand the organization and what got us to where we are.”Looking to her insurance industry peers, Lisa believes the best way to hire top insurance talent is to look at skills sets and experiences, mindset and the ability to learn.“Things are always changing. If you're too fixed on what's gotten you to be successful, it may prevent you from thinking about what it looks like as you move forward.Skills are really critical. When you are looking for skills, you do tap into broader talent markets.When working with an external insurance executive search partner, Lisa highlights the importance of how they represent AXIS and the level of diversity in their candidate slates.“I also want to look at the percentage of searches they’ve filled for areas of where we're trying to build expertise. What's their experience like in those areas?”Lisa discusses some of the tech tools AXIS are using to support insurance talent attraction. Revealing the one lesson her career has taught her she wants everyone to know, Lisa encourages us to listen more and talk less. &nbsp;She concludes by encouraging us to...

“Throughput is really exciting when you connect those three areas, so what does that ecosystem look like?We make sure we are branching out and seeking underrepresented talent and also talent who have amazing experience. We do that in our acquisition process”, says Christina Parr as she discusses her role of combining talent acquisition, learning &amp; development and organizational development. “As folks flow into the organization, we're developing them to grow within the organization regardless of where they happen to come in at from a skill perspective.And then as we look at the organization and how it's developing, we have a lot of touch points, that we ask employees from a pulse perspective.”On the podcast this week, Argo Group’s Head of Global Talent Acquisition, L&amp;D and OD talks about her career journey from high-tech and oil &amp; gas in to insurance. “With quite a bit of reluctance I came to insurance. And until I really understood what was happening in the future of insurance, Insurtech, fintech, wasn't all that excited. I love it, it’s addictive.”Christina talks about the balance between attracting under-represented talent and through referrals. “I understand now why we tend to talk to a lot of folks who have vast experience in the market. But we also have to keep ourselves in check with that bias because if we get too heavy on referrals, we don't dig deep for underrepresented talent. It's easy to fall into just kind of staying with the folks that you've known for so long.”She shares how Argo Group are breaking down inter-departmental siloes, traditions and using data to transform employee engagement. “We want to try things in different ways. By doing that, I think it makes us far more effective. We partner with a third party who brings us about 10 million data points from around the globe. And we use those benchmarks to compare our employee engagement results.For the last five surveys, we’ve been going up and up and up, which is quite remarkable as we’ve been going through strategic alternatives.”Christina highlights the impact of the Brookfield Asset Management acquisition. “Most people in the organization were eagerly anticipating this transformation.Once the buy was completed, our executive team not only presented the direction, but more importantly, listened to people.‘What's going well, what's not going well, what do we need to change?’I very much appreciated that perspective. Values are being revisited to make sure everyone understands that integrity is first.We are transitioning the business to three towers. Casualty, Financial Lines and Surety, and Specialty Lines. They are in many different business areas and we get to be the arm of Specialty that they otherwise did not have.”In terms of the impact on the day-to-day, Christina says: “We have a focus on the right people in the right spots with the right skills. You’ve got to get the big people on the bus before you start going anywhere.We've had some shifts in how our is talent positioned. One out of 10 are getting a promotion in some way, shape or form.We've also been working with our socio-economic employee resource group to make sure that we give plenty of people, a chance to succeed who may not be traditional in their background. How we then train them, give them the right skills and then we promote them, thereby making the organizational more healthy and sustainable.” Christina emphasizes how the 8 employee resource groups are working to reduce barriers to entry and expand the prospective talent pool. &nbsp;“About a third of our roles do not require a degree now. That's a big change. In most companies, you've got the requirement for a degree, specialty certifications, Master's degrees. You can see why unfortunately, we're not getting underrepresented talent. We've worked very...

“We look at our people as our number one asset, they are really providing our product. You need the people in order to bring that (insurance) promise to life. When we bring in an entry level person, we’re looking at their development path. We want to know, ‘what do you want to do?’, says Roxanne Nelson as she explains how Falvey create a clear career path for those entering the insurance industry. On the podcast this week, Falvey’s Chief People Officer shares her journey from underwriting to people operations. SVP of Marketing, Megan Bell gives insight in to her marketing career in a start-up to natural foods, before joining the Falvey Insurance team in 2017. “I was one of the first hires into the marketing team. I've worked really closely with Roxanne on the employer branding side. What it's like to work here and why people should work here is a big part of what I do.”Megan describes what it’s like to work in insurance as a marketeer. “I feel like it takes too long for someone to realize that this is such an amazing place to be. You don't know until you're in it and you don't know before because no one ever tells you go and work in insurance.It's so full of passion. Everyone I meet, whether you’re an underwriter or you're in claims, just really cares about what they do. They really care about providing good service and coming up with new innovation. It's just a super inspiring place to be. I feel like there's also no end to insurance.”Megan explains how the business has transformed from Falvey Cargo Underwriting to Falvey Insurance Group, offering a suite of MGA programs which includes marine cargo, all risk shippers, interest insurance, inland marine vessel pollution, as well as transportation and logistics. The business has also recently launched a wholesale brokerage division. Roxanne highlights the growth in headcount over the past few years and the role collaboration and support staff have played in delivering first-rate customer service. “As we've built out our underwriting units, we've also built out our support staff. We are a very technology focused company. That is a big different differentiator to us besides our people.Along with growing our MGAs, we've had to grow our support staff. We have a fully operational IT department, building our systems in house. We have a business intelligence and innovation department that is really focused on working with our internal departments to find out what they need to be more efficient. There’s lot of collaboration.” Roxanne discusses how Falvey are moving from more rigid people committees to launching fluid, less formal employee resource groups. “These groups are set up to give our employees a chance to get together and have discussions about what's going on in their careers, what are the opportunities, what can we do to recruit more people? They are ultimately helping us drive the business forward and be more ingrained with our employees.” Megan emphasizes the value of close collaboration between marketing and people operations, when it comes to employer branding. “Every year we send an underwriter to the Lloyd's Academy in London. That's like gold. It's not promotional content, it's something people want to read. It's great to tell people that this is something we're investing in.When we redid our website there was a big focus for me on our careers page specifically. There isn't a stock photo there. It's all of our employees.”Roxanne advises people coming to interview at Falvey to embrace the culture. “It is so important to us and the employees. It's not just about the number of accounts you're writing or the production level you have, it's about being part of our team and our culture.If you're an executive and you've been in a very strict corporate type of structure, you're not necessarily going to find that here. We're more...

“We always have a common goal every year for the entire organization. It’s in every single employee’s goal plan, from CEO all the way to somebody in an administrative position. The same goal we're all working towards”, says Aimee. “You can't expect people to rally around a goal unless you help them understand what that goal is.&nbsp; You have to help connect every person's role or every team's role back to that goal.”On the Insurance Coffee House Podcast this week, Aimee talks through her insurance career journey. “My entire career in insurance has been spent in the banking space. Coming out of college, I went to a bank’s management training program.Through all the different rotations and nothing was really resonating. That bank had actually purchased an insurance agency and were still very early on in their journey of that agency into the fold. The manager of the program said, ‘why don't you go over there for a couple months and do a special project?’ I went and never left that space.”She shares how being inquisitive and working for a CEO who encouraged her to take risks and fail has been key to her insurance career development. “I’d ask a ton of questions. He would share things with me that I probably had no business asking. He was very transparent with me and helped me really to understand the business of insurance.I spent a lot of time focusing on early career programs, bringing talent to the industry. And then he gave me a couple of departments to run and gave me a lot of freedom to do that.”Aimee shares the road to becoming COO at Cadence Insurance, who’s inspired her along the way and how insurance has helped her find her true passions. She highlights how the business has recently transferred in to the ownership of Gallagher. “The organization I sit in today goes all the way back to the late 1880s. The next journey in our evolution was us joining the Gallagher organization. We have come out of that bank ownership structure and now joined one of the largest brokers in the world. It’s being positioned for growth and what our organization needed to move forward.”Aimee emphasizes the impact on the team and clients as well as Cadence’s aspirations under its new ownership. &nbsp;&nbsp; “When the announcement came out, the bank had been our home for 24 years. There were very strong professional and personal relationships developed there.But the time was right for both them and us. This really was the thing that we needed for our future. Being owned by an insurance broker and having a parent company that speaks our language and lives and breathes insurance every day has been a lot of fun. &nbsp;Short-term, it's about helping to connect our teams to the Gallagher teams. Helping to connect both our clients to the huge suite of resources that we now have access to and our teammates in terms of their career development, opportunities, that weren't in our legacy world. Then, it's going to be about how we best harness and leverage the power of Gallagher that we have behind us.”Being a key player in the merger, Aimee gives insight in to her role as COO and managing the transition. “Even the most positive change can still come with a feeling apprehension, anxiety. For us it's helping our teams understand the changes. Helping them understand ‘the why’ behind it. It’s also helping them to see the other side. Sometimes you have to go through a little bit of a pain period to get to the better part.We try to do our very best to be very clear about what's coming, what to expect and what we're going to gain on the other side. It’s been very much a collaborative conversation with our teammates, with the Gallagher teams that we're working with.”Aimee describes how transparent leadership is key to managing a culture of change. &nbsp;“You have to be intentional around your communication strategy. We are a very...

“I changed the department from HR to People and culture. The term HR is a construct of an economist in the 1800s, talking about people as commodities, just like paper and pens. That's not what this is about anymore”, says Denise. “The world has changed. In order to unlock true potential of a company and its performance, you have to focus on the people, unlocking their true potential as whole individuals.”On the podcast this week, Denise shares her journey from investment banking through Silicon Valley in to insurance. “The consistent theme across my career journey is I'm a risk taker, which is interesting, given I'm in the risk business now. I always looked for additional challenge, something different, something that I could fix, launch or do differently.I left investment banking in the dotcom era and moved to Silicon Valley area and worked for 2 different start-ups. I had the experience of taking them up, expanding and then dismantling.Then through my network, I got a call from Marsh Mclennan and I took the leap. I was sucked into the insurance world. Once you're in, you're really never going to get out.”Following a Head of HR role with Voya and launching her own executive coaching business, Denise was approached by an executive search firm to meet with Fortitude Re. The business operates in the Life and Annuity and Property &amp; Casualty business in the US, Bermuda and in Japan. She joined the team in 2022. Denise gives insight in to her role as Chief People Officer as well as overseeing marketing, communications, branding and CSR. She emphasizes the desire to create a human-centric culture and the benefits of being a smaller reinsurance company. &nbsp; “Human-centricity and putting people as our priority and at the center of what we do, really helps us make decisions as a business in a way that enables our people to not only bring their whole selves to work.But to focus on developing themselves across the spectrum of things that make them people. That unlocks such tremendous potential and their ability to perform at a level that you couldn't really expect otherwise.Human-centric leadership is not something that comes naturally to people who have grown up professionally over the last 20 years. But if you think about authenticity and communications and transparency, you think about empathy and understanding where people are, being adaptive and being able to flex things, it starts to make sense in terms of why that works.Because we’re a smaller company, we get to focus more on development. We get to experiment.” Denise highlights the importance of finding opportunities for the team to unplug from the complexities of large reinsurance deals. “If you think about investment banking as an industry, it’s very much a burn and churn type of reality. That's not a sustainable model.We’re really focused on trying to create balance for our people. The work is hard but we make sure we find opportunities for people to unplug from work.”Denise talks about closing the whole business for a week in August and Fortitude Re’s Ignite annual learning allowance program. “They can use it to develop themselves in any way, personally or professionally. We have people using it to go skydiving, learn a language or to get certifications that will help them professionally. It’s about developing the whole person.”Highlighting the advice, she’d give to insurance leaders coming for interview, Denise says, “Be confident yet be humble. Our CEO calls it a sneaker culture. We run really fast, we're super aggressive but we like to be normal people. Being very confident in your capabilities and being able to convey your subject matter but being a humble human who can work in that flat hierarchical structure is important.”As advice to her fellow insurance industry people leaders, Denise says the ‘how’ is more...

“Flexibility has become increasingly important. Not just working from home, but being able to work remotely and work the hours that suit you“, says Jason. “No one's expected to work late into the night or weekends unless they want to. Unless that's a rhythm that suits them.”On the podcast this week, Jason discusses his background in tech and digital recruitment, before moving to an in-house talent acquisition role. He gives insight in to the fast-paced growth of Italian auto insurtech, Prima, as well as the impact of Goldman Sachs and Blackstone investment in 2018. “We offer primarily digital motor insurance products. In Italy, we now have home and family insurance products as well, diversifying that product range.In Italy, we now have over 2.5 million customers. The plan is to consolidate that market leadership whilst also establishing ourselves as a brand in the UK and Spanish markets.”As part of driving its presence in the UK and Spain, Jason outlines the business objectives, distribution models and future plans.&nbsp; “We're going to first and foremost continue to establish our brand here, but in a very sustainable and controlled way. Especially with recent economic conditions, making UK and Spain profitable businesses in their own right is the most important thing. We'll also be looking to perhaps diversify the product range over the next 3-4 years. &nbsp;Jason highlights the importance of Prima’s global EVP and being culturally sensitive to wide range of nationalities in the business.“To add consistency to all of our employees in multiple countries, it's a hybrid / remote working environment here. &nbsp;We wanted to define that in detail and make sure people were aware of the flexibility. We have a working from abroad policy. 30 days per year in which you can work from other countries. With 33 nationalities at&nbsp;Prima, that's quite a popular policy. We want to make sure that people are aware they can travel too. Whether it's to Milan our headquarters or London or Madrid. Making sure they get that face time with their colleagues.”Jason discusses the outcomes of the EVP on attracting the best insurance talent. “Obviously, we’ve got to get the salary right but Prima has a real focus on work life balance, a respectful culture. But that's been a positive conversation to have with candidates in how much flexibility there is here.You're in the driving seat over your own career progression and the direction you want to take. You have the support of the company and managers.”Jason shares his interview advice for high-performing insurance talent coming for interview. “Being tech driven and data driven in your mindset is key. Our leaders here really voice the importance of using data to make key decisions. Interviewing for senior level roles means that you're going to be asked about decisions you've made based on data. How you made those decisions. The technologies you've used and the engineering or technical teams that you've worked closely with.” As well as sharing some of the tech tools, Prima use to support hiring, Jason encourages his fellow insurance talent acquisition leaders to have a competency and values-based interview process. &nbsp;“It’s allowed us to take a lot of the ambiguity out of interviewing, to make sure we get the right fit of candidates and they align with the values of Prima.Trying to take the biases out, making sure that interview panels know the content they're covering at each stage and what they should be interviewing about, that's really helped us identify and hire really top talent across a multitude of domains.”Connect with Jason Marsh on LinkedIn or find out more about Prima...

“Because we’re such a mission driven organization, it is really important that we are bringing people in who want to make a difference in the world, who are excited about joining our mission and making an impact ”, says Sarah. “The people who are involved in that process are really committed to finding the people who are going to amplify the team the most and help us achieve our objectives."On the Insurance Coffee House Podcast this week, Sarah discusses her passion for leadership development and attracting talent to early-stage tech businesses. “I am a builder. I enjoy creating programs from scratch. Getting to know each person so we can design our programs and culture for the people who are in the organization.”Sarah gives insight into EvolutionIQ and how they use AI and machine-learning to sift data to support the business mission of supporting those with bodily injury claims.“Our mission and vision is to be able to revolutionize the industry of bodily injury claims. To become the leader in claims guidance by helping to improve the lives of sick and injured workers and enable them to return to the workforce.We try to accelerate that journey, to connect people with the resources and the attention that they need at pivotal points. We're primarily in short term disability, long term disability and workers compensation. We have really honed in on various points where you can help to essentially guide the claims adjusters and examiners to be able to look at those cases at the right time.”Sarah discusses how OKRs are used the goal-setting methodology at both leadership and company level. “That is where we really set our big challenging goals. The executives and leaders of the organization take personal responsibility for making sure that those are achieved. People are given very consistent feedback about where they can potentially improve. There is a really well laid out road map for how people can be successful and measure their performance. Our goal is to make sure every single person is able to see the impact that they're having and what their potential development and growth areas are. We really support that through ongoing conversations”Sarah shares how EvolutionIQ is balancing an ultra-high performance culture and building a culture of community. &nbsp;“We really do believe in people getting to know each other on a more personal level too. For anyone joining us remotely, we fly them in for the first week so they're able to really walk around the office, get to know other people cross functionally alongside their own teams.We try to create an extremely inclusive environment through regular events and company off-sites. Meaningful activities that we can essentially bond through. People also are able to pursue their own passions and interests and share that with other people in the organization.”Sarah gives her advice to insurance leaders coming for interview, citing authenticity and being clear on your purpose and fit within the organization. &nbsp;And she encourages her fellow people leaders within insurtech businesses to know what’s needed for success. “Know your organization extremely well. Be able to identify the critical components, requirements and skills that are necessary today.You don't want to hire a bunch of replicas. You want to find people who have different skill sets and different perspectives, where you get a little bit more diversity of thought and diversity of contribution. That brings even greater value.” As closing advice, Sarah says, “One of the things we learned during the pandemic is that it can be challenging to have these separate worlds collide together.&nbsp; Looking at it as a holistic part of your life and figuring out how to get the most meaning and joy out of it as possible.”Connect with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-schuermann/" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

“Anyone stepping into a predominantly 100% remote opportunity, assuming it's not their first time, they know what they're getting into and what to expect from the day-to-day”, says Blair. “In terms of building a culture, the onus is really on the company, but also us as individuals to engage with co-workers. You have to be intentional about over-communicating.”On the Insurance Coffee House Podcast this week, Blair Kamrass shares her journey from studying political science to an HR and people leadership function at a growing Insurtech, Coterie Insurance. &nbsp; “I've been in a leadership position now for about 7.5 years, overseeing the whole HR department, all of the functions. People are so complex that it keeps things interesting. A lot of what we do isn't ‘set it and forget it’, we have to constantly be evaluating policies, programs that we've put in place to make sure that it's staying up to date with the modern-day workforce.”Blair highlights the role HR plays in internal communications.“It’s partnering with people leaders, our ‘S-team’ is what we call our executive team, to make sure everyone is as updated as they can possibly be about upcoming changes. We know change management in any organization is huge and trying to stay ahead of that the best you can. It’s helping leaders develop their own unique, authentic selves and making sure that all of the communication channels are firing on all cylinders at any given point.”Blair discusses attracting insurance talent to the business and the impact of its 100% remote nature. “We’ve set up an organization that truly supports the employee’s whole self because we know there is life outside of work and life gets very complicated. Having those structures, helps attract the insurance talent we're looking for.” She discusses the tools Coterie uses to keep people in engaged and communicating. Including Slack channels and bi-annual engagement surveys. “One thing we do really well is communication. Every month we have a company ‘All hands’ with more formal reports from our ‘S-team and every week we have a meeting called ‘Friday Wins’.&nbsp; This is a more casual gathering, but the intention is to come together, express gratitude and shout out your coworkers, discuss your wins for the week.It's a combination of making sure you're creating the opportunities to come together in a formal way to hear business updates, but also to have fun because we need to always make sure that we're building fun into our work.”Blair advises senior leaders coming for interview at Coterie, saying, “I would say over-communicate. I can't express that enough with a 100% remote company. Be intentional about thinking, ‘OK, who do I need to follow up with? Who needs to be in the know about this? We want to make sure everyone feels they're in the know.”To hire the best insurance talent, Blair counsels fellow insurance people leaders to have a good grasp on the demographics of their workforce. “Have in the back of your mind that people are complex. They're not robots. Everyone is in a different season of life. Do your research. Know what's going on in the world socially, economically, politically because it will filter into the organization and it will impact our teams.” In terms of attracting a diversity of insurance talent, Blair highlights, “We make sure all of our hiring managers receive on average at least three pre-qualified diverse candidates to progress through the interview process.Our goal is always to build out a diverse workforce whenever we can. We use a people dashboard, so at any point in time, we can see the makeup of our organization. By gender, age, race, location, our turnover rate at the executive level and so on. That way we have a pulse on how our organization is looking.”Blair highlights how Coterie is using experiential exercises as part of the hiring process and what she...

“Patience is such a virtue when working in a high growth organization like this. The number of partner agencies that we’ve brought together are all in different phases of talent maturity.You just have to be patient and figure out where they are on the continuum and bring them along. I'm building and doing and teaching all at the same time”, says Lea as she emphasizes the need to be patient in a start-up environment. &nbsp;On the Insurance Coffee House Podcast this week, Lea discusses the steps that led her from advertising HR leadership roles in Boston and New York, through to real estate investment in North Carolina to her role as Chief Human Resources Officer at Oakbridge Insurance.“People are people. The principles of organizational behavior, design and talent management are transferable. There are some tweaks that need to be made based on the industry that you're in and the issues you may be facing. I’ve really enjoyed learning all about insurance and risk management. I work with a great leadership team that has helped me learn. They have learned from me and the talent skills that I bring to the table. Oakbridge Insurance is an extraordinary company.” Lea describes the private equity-backed business model that underpins current growth. “We're on our second round of private equity. We hit the ground running on January 1 of 2021 with around 100 employees. Today, our growth, we're ranked 55th among US insurance brokerages. We have 485+ insurance professionals. And have now acquired 32 partner insurance agencies.”“Our shareholders know that is how we're going to grow. We are constantly in the market looking for partner agencies that share the same cultural values. We've got a robust M&amp;A team. That is what they do, day in day out."From a people and culture perspective, Lea gives insight into working alongside the M&amp;A team and integrating insurance talent in to the business. “Once they’ve identified the prospect and moved it through the funnel, we get to the point where we start having the talent conversations.I integrate with the leaders, the owners of those acquisition targets and talk about talent. We all know that without talent, what are we in the brokerage world? We need to preserve that insurance talent and make sure that change management journey is as easy as possible.”Lea discusses the impact of working in a high-growth fast-paced insurance business environment. “The driving force is the mission to better serve the communities that we're in. Transforming and elevating the way that business is done in the insurance industry, you've got to be prepared for a rapidly changing environment. To be comfortable with ambiguity, flexible, adaptable and open-minded.” Lea highlights the benefit of working alongside a team of like-minded insurance professionals as well as seeking the advice and counsel of external support. “It's all about creating a best-in-class producer-centric, employee-centric brokerage built on the foundation of meaningful client relationships. Having that team of like-minded folks is really important as we explore all the opportunities that are out there and building things from the ground up, making sure your skills are sharp and that you can be agile.I&nbsp;am a firm believer in peer support from other organizations, even outside of the industry. Having conversations with people like you on, ‘What's going on in the industry, what are you hearing? Making sure that I'm learning and growing all the time.”Lea shares her advice for insurance leaders coming to interview at Oakbridge, saying, “Bring your authentic self to the interview. Be prepared with your questions about the organization. Make sure that you're looking for the fit, because the fit is so absolutely important.”Advising her fellow insurance industry HR people leaders and talent acquisition professionals,...

“Having events like the town hall is incredibly important. For everyone to get together and be able to celebrate what we're building”, says Eric. “It gives us a forum to talk about what's going on, what the strategy is. It’s a time for anyone to ask questions so they can get a better understanding of what everyone does.We don't want everything to be just work. We also have fun things, that people normally aren't used to, so they also get a sense of accomplishment. It builds a lot of camaraderie.”On the Insurance Coffee House Podcast this week, Eric Haller and HR Director, Ashlie Keeling talk about the journey to launching and joining Bermuda-based Fleming Insurance Holdings. “Stephen Minor approached me in 2018 and said, ‘Do you think there's room for another legacy carrier in the market?’ We decided there was but we really wanted to change the paradigm in terms of how it was done.We wanted to focus more on capital solutions versus exposure solutions. What we mean by that is instead of simply taking away bad liabilities, allowing our counter parties to recycle capital back into the front end of the business, so they can provide a legacy solution on an ongoing basis.”Eric discusses navigating the early days of running the business. &nbsp;“When you're in start-up mode, it was getting the regulatory side, getting the capital side sorted, mapping out that strategy, how to achieve all those individual goals to get where we wanted to be today.The good thing is we had a great core team. We were able to close our first transaction at the end of 2018. The most challenging thing about the early days, is every counter party you talk to, the first question is, ‘Have you done a deal yet? Within two months of starting the company, we were able to answer that ‘Yes’.Eric discusses working through Fleming’s strategic plan and the interim goal of securing institutional funding from Altamont Capital Partners in May 2022 and the acquisition of JRG Reinsurance. With team based in Bermuda and spread across the US, employees are Fleming Insurance Holdings’ biggest asset. &nbsp;Ashlie highlights her role in attracting and retaining the best insurance talent, as the business eyes European expansion. “One of the first things I did when I came was, I planned a town hall meeting. That was a pivotal week for us. We just got to know one another.&nbsp; With us being remote, being able to do that and see us grow as people, colleagues and as a collaborative supportive culture has been the most amazing transformation.”Discussing the outcomes of these in-person collaborative events, Ashlie emphasizes the excitement to be on the team, for what the business is doing and for each other.“One of our values is that we recognize the expertise of each other and we celebrate it. It’s got us excited to learn more about them as people but also things they have published. We want to have a repository where people can upload white papers or articles. We want to celebrate each other, a culture of collaboration and support. No matter where you turn you get that support. You get help and make friends out of it. It is so important as we build businesses in a virtual or hybrid world.”Eric shares the benefit of having an insurance people leader like Ashlie “Bringing Ashlie on board and focusing on the people aspect has been great. Making sure employees needs are being sought or being looked after is positive. Soon after Ashlie was hired she came to me and said, ‘What about unlimited PTO?’I said, ‘What are you talking about? That's crazy'. But the more we talked about it and all the detailed benefits, it provides a mechanism to allow the employees a little bit of flexibility.” &nbsp;It's that type of input. Having her in the role is incredibly beneficial. Our goal is to make Fleming a better place to be for its employees.”When looking

“We're able to move mountains with far fewer people because of the fact that everybody in their role is exceptional and they’re that 90th percentile.It's really hard to maintain that talent density, especially as we've started to scale. But we absolutely refuse to just put bodies in seats because we need them”, says Datha. On the podcast this week, Steadily’s Co-Founder &amp; COO shares her career journey. “I've spent my entire career in the insurance industry. Geico heavily recruited in the university I went to. They ended up recruiting me into their Emerging Leaders program.Then I was recruited again by Brown &amp; Brown, a large international insurance brokerage. They recruited me into their internal audit program. Within that role, I learned everything about insurance. She discusses the steps she took to weigh up the risk of leaving an established insurance leadership role to co-found insurtech Steadily. “I'm an insurance person, I'm very risk averse. The idea of going out on my own and doing something that could fail. That was terrifying.&nbsp; I sat down and calculated the risk. I thought, ‘Ok, let's model out worst-case scenario and best-case scenario. We raised $4million in a seed round, so we had 12 to 18 months to prove our concept.”With a recent Series B fundraise of $60m and a team of 100+, Datha gives an overview of the business' current position and the insurance solution Steadily provides.“We wanted to make sure that real estate investors, no matter where or what type of property they had, could come to a single place to find somebody who could help them and who could do it quickly.Steadily does have a product of its own but we also have very strong relationships with retail partners. That allows us to support virtually anyone who comes to us with any type of rental property. Some are using it for short term, some are using it for long term.Our sales agents during the hours of 7am to 7pm have three minutes to respond to a customer. When a customer is on our website, they're going to hear from us within just a few minutes. That's why we're winning.”To achieve this level of service and achieve a continued growth trajectory, building a high-performance insurance leadership culture is paramount. Datha highlights how she weeds out the B &amp; C performers from the A-players. “When we bring somebody in to interview, the entire process is designed to figure out, ‘Are they the person or the few people who were carrying the weight for their whole team at their previous company.”We have a culture deck for everyone who applies to Steadily to look at. Our philosophy for hiring is to hire a company that’s only made up of 90th percentile team members.We save money in other areas so we can pay people the max, so we can attract the very best people in their fields. It can be painful sometimes, but if you drop that bar then very quickly your talent density starts to go downhill.It’s easier to get in to Harvard than get hired at Steadily.”Datha shares her approach to hiring the best insurance talent. “As one of the co-founders, I still meet every single candidate in my downstream. I want to know who they are and who is joining our company before they come on board.So much of my calendar is spent interviewing people. It's worth it because by doing so, we are able to keep our talent density high.As for her advice to candidates coming to interview, Datha says, “We talk a lot about our culture deck in the interview process. Sometimes people bow out of the interview process after they read it. Make sure you know the culture deck inside out. Make sure it gives you warm and fuzzy feelings. If you don't like the culture deck, you will not like it here.”Advising fellow Insurtech founders and insurance people leaders, “You have to prioritize money to pay them. You need

“We’ve had 115 acquisitions. That’s 115 individual small businesses who’ve become part of Inszone. How do you connect that? How do you make people feel like they're part of one company? says Matt. “We put this quarterly meeting in place where we have the whole C suite on and focus on three things, ‘Where are we at? Where are we going? And how are we going to get there?’On the podcast this week, Matt talks about his accidental fall in to the insurance industry. “It’s a little story about dumb luck. I saw an ad in the paper. I called and got an interview but went to the wrong place. They were in a hiring frenzy because they had just come to town. I ended up in the insurance department that settled total losses.”He discusses feeling like the dumbest guy in the room whilst working for NASA and his love of organizational development. Matt joined Inszone Insurance Services in June 2023 as Chief HR Officer. In January of that year, the business had a headcount of 220. By the end of the year, it was over 500. Continuing on their acquisition of 50 insurance agencies per year, Matt is responsible for fostering an inclusive and collaborative work environment. “In the next couple of years, we will be several thousand people. I was brought in to help usher through the next 2 to 3 years of incredible growth. To make all of these individual small businesses feel like one. To bring team members together.”Matt explains the key to Inszone’s success being a three-legged stool approach. Employee culture, carrier relations and being client centric.“Taking care of folks, Chris and Norm started another business in 2014 called Staff Boom. That business has 1500 employees. 350 are dedicated to Inszone, all the back-office functions and administration. &nbsp; The insurance agents can spend their time either selling or servicing the clients’ needs. It frees them up to have a decent work life balance.”Matt highlights how Inszone create moments of connection and embed new insurance talent in to the business.&nbsp;“We call out everybody that's a new acquisition and make sure that they feel welcomed. The cadence of doing that quarterly is really important.If you're not always talking about where the company is at and where it's going, it, it disconnects people. They don't feel like they're part of something.”Matt emphasizes the importance of management training within the Inszone culture. &nbsp;“Traditionally, owners pick the best widget maker. They’re the best at doing what they do, but might not have any idea how to manage people.A business can really struggle they don't have the skill set of how to communicate, solve conflict, motivate teams. Or how to drive results and make the business unit feel cohesive.When I came into Inszone, I asked for a list of every manager we have in the company. I broke them up to groups and every single month we have management training. 78 people where we talk about best practices.”Matt discusses insurance talent retention, employee recognition and creating a collaborative culture. “Those moments of connection where a manager just lets people know that they care about them. Calling out good things. That form of employee recognition is missing in so many businesses. People will stay at a workplace where they're treated well.Most companies have no idea how much money it costs them when a great employee leaves and walks out the door with their institutional knowledge.”When it comes to hiring high-performing insurance talent, Matt encourages leadership candidates to be real. “Be yourself. Be transparent with your strengths and weaknesses.I’ll use myself as an example. I love training and development. I love culture. I love organizational development. But if you need me to do spreadsheets all day, Math was never my strong point. If somebody says, ‘I just work too...

“Every employee, even the most entry level positions, gets bonus company stock at the end of the year. You start thinking differently, about improvements in processes. It doesn't just benefit you. You're looking for things that benefit the whole organisation“, says Ryan. On our insurance executive search and talent acquisition podcast this week, Ryan discusses growing up in a farming family to his father launching his own insurance agency in the 1980s. “As soon as I was able to help, I was employed in the agency, updating paper manuals. I got insurance producer licensed in high school.”After college, Ryan joined a Fortune 500 Company, where he learned underwriting and claims. He ended up managing and buying an independent agency before merging it with his parents’ insurance business. “I always knew of RLI Insurance, the culture and the reputation. I got a phone call one day where they just said, we have an opening to help us recruit folks.” Ryan explains how his role as Talent Acquisition Lead has evolved over time and the current market position of RLI.The business with over 1100 employees - 450 based from its Peoria, Illinois HQ - operates in the specialty, mostly commercial space across 50 States. "We've seen property take off here in the last couple of years. That’s been one of our fastest growing areas. One of the things that makes us unique, is our product groups all have the autonomy and the freedom to decide what coverages they want to offer the distribution channels. It’s not a top down, one chief underwriting officer dictating the same process for everybody. We hold our product VPs to a very high standard. It’s like running their own business.We give them the tools and the resources, but that ownership mentality is critical for success of their particular insurance product.”Ryan highlights RLI’s ESOP model and its impact on team unity, accountability and support. In his Insurance Talent Acquisition role, Ryan emphasizes how he balances the demands of the hiring manager with attracting and retaining the very best insurance leaders.“You want people that get it, coming in the door with that ownership mindset. Not everybody comes in fully understanding what that means and what that's going to look like.We want people who want to think like an owner. It's actually better for the business overall, because people care more. They're treating it as their business.”Ryan shares what he looks for in leaders coming for interview and the advice he’d give to fellow insurance people and talent acquisition leaders in the insurance industry. “There's a lot of smart people in the insurance industry. If it's not a cultural fit for your team, group or organization, it's going to be frustrating for both sides. We look for what we call ‘hungry, humble, smart.’ All the questions filter into those three categories.”Ryan clarifies what he seeks when working with an external insurance executive search partner. “I want a partner that understands my needs, but also the organisation at large, our total compensation package, or total rewards. What&nbsp; our corporate mentality is. It again goes back to culture.”Ryan concludes with the one lesson his job has taught him, he thinks everyone should know. “I'm a big believer that we are all in sales, every job, every role. I don't mean that in a stereotypical car sales way. &nbsp;Whether it's internal or external roles, you're influencing others. We're all in sales. It is a people business.”Connect with Ryan Hite on LinkedIn or find out more about RLI Insurance CompanyThe Insurance Coffee House Podcast is hosted by&nbsp;<a...

“We’re very committed to staying connected. We’re very careful about how we meet, when we meet and who is in the various meetings”, says Marjorie as she highlights the key success factors to implementing a remote-first culture at insurtech, Openly. &nbsp;On the podcast this week, Marjorie charts her career journey from consultancy to insurance people leader. “I started my career in the lean six sigma field, mostly in technology. It gave me a fantastic appreciation for process and data and people.” “One of the things I recognized in consulting was you can have the greatest process and amazing data, but you've got to have the convergence of those two things plus the right people in the right roles. And so, I made an intentional decision to pivot toward the people side of things.”She discusses her love for growing people functions within scaling businesses and her role at Openly. &nbsp; “I absolutely love this stage of a company's growth because it really is about how you set up to grow an amazing, strong business with a solid foundation. That's got to be everything from technology to processes to the people and the strategy across the company. The insurance market and the insurance industry as a whole fit perfectly with that.”“One of the great things about Openly is we are so committed to the policyholder, to the agents and to our employees. It's a great marriage of the three.”Marjorie highlights Openly’s growth, insurance products and distribution model.“We sell our insurance policies through 30,000 independent agents in 21 States. We giving those agents the technology and the tools makes it possible for them to do more business, to serve their customers better.They want an easy experience that they can rely on because that's their reputation.”Founded in 2017, Openly is a remote first environment. Marjorie discusses how the business keeps a team spread across 43 States, knitted together both professionally and personally. “We're always looking to improve opportunities for connection. We're actually rolling out ‘culture hubs’ in specific locations where we have concentrations of employees. We spend a lot of time on Slack. Channels that are specifically business oriented, and channels more on the personal or fun side. People can find those levels of connection.”Marjorie gives insight in to how the business is developing storytelling – using employee spotlights to tell the story of what operational excellence looks like at Openly.“We’re working with our engineering team right now to find a creative way to tell a story without being overly complex on the technical side. That’s how our employees and anyone external who's listening can appreciate how technology really drives our business.”Discussing wellness, well-being and remote-working, Marjorie says, “We’ve started a ‘Be Well’ programme. It’s a monthly stipend that goes to employees to spend on any kind of wellness related activity. It could be a membership to a gym. It could be a ski pass or meditation sessions. And we've also been doing a series of panels, largely stemming from our DEI initiatives.&nbsp; When you're in any kind of a stressful environment and your employees are remote, there's an added challenge there because they don't have that in person outlet. We're doing an event around managing holiday stress. We also have a mental health expert coming in to talk to the entire company, looking for the signs and symptoms of any kind of mental distress.”Marjorie shares how building a remote workforce helps build a more diverse and inclusive culture within Openly. “We don't have geographical limitations when hiring, so that goes a long way. We built out our DEI programme this year.&nbsp; We started with a panel for International Women's Day. 10 female leaders across the business, came and talked about their...

“Generative AI, it's going to change the world in an incredibly positive way”, says Alex.“In the long term, I truly believe that we will elevate the role of HR because we'll be able to not only remove a lot of the friction from finding complex answers around HR policies and programs, but we'll also be able to augment our services to be able to do more.”Alex charts her career journey to falling in to consulting. “15 years ago, I'm not even sure I really understood what human resources was. How I ended up in this was focussing on how organizations manage their people and how they build relationships with their workforce. I constantly asked myself, could we make work better?”“I understood that technology and data were huge drivers in how organizations think about their people, how they make decisions about their people.”Alex gives insight in to how technology and humans can combine to make HR better. How we can use technology to deliver a more personalized experience as employee expectations continue to shift. “It's incredibly difficult to make the argument for more human resources in human resources.There are times where humans should be the main point of contact, but we should be digital first where we can so that the limited human resources we have access to can be there for those human moments like a promotion or something unfortunate, like a death in the family or even just a difficult coaching conversation.”Alex emphasizes the biggest impact embedding AI will have on business functions and the steps we can take to deploy AI effectively into our organizations. “Build off the things we're used to, things we're comfortable with things that we have already built into our spaces.My number one piece of advice would be to embrace it as an individual because it will make you feel more comfortable in the workplace setting. Use it in your personal life so that you can then better understand the applications at work and be open-minded.”Alex highlights simple AI use cases that can lead to wider organizational buy-in. "There are a number of smaller use cases that organizations can begin to embrace today. Job descriptions are a great example. Ask ChatGPT to write a job description for you, then ask it to rewrite that job description from the perspective of a cool or edgy company.”“I would never suggest that you put your internal data in any sort of open environment, but asking to write a job description for an HR Business Partner is absolutely something that you can use.”Alex discusses challenges around AI, biases and DEI. “We hear things like we've removed anything that could create any sort of bias towards one particular group or another. We know however, that, that is just beginning to scratch the surface. The real trick here is something called humans in the loop. There's no world where I would recommend using artificial intelligence that doesn't include humans in the loop.”In conclusion, Alex advises HR professionals and talent acquisition professionals to use AI to enhance our skills. “The best advice I can give is to only use generative AI to augment your area of expertise.”“We should be using the years of expertise that put us in our jobs to analyze the output from generative AI. It should never replace the areas of expertise we already have.”Connect with Alex Zea on LinkedIn or find out more about Mercer Leapgen The Insurance Coffee House Podcast is hosted by&nbsp;Nick Hoadley, CEO of&nbsp;<a href="https://insurance-search.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

“One of our divisions wanted to pilot a work from home model in 2019. They tried it and it was successful. We made a decision that we would pilot that across our business and I remember working with others to figure out the guiding principles. When Covid hit, it’s not an overstatement to say that we had zero issues from a technology and productivity perspective”, says Andrew.On the podcast this week, Andrew discusses his career journey from Wales to Fort Wayne as his transition from part-time consultant to joining the MedPro team full-time. With a remit of overseeing external communications across MedPro’s 17 divisions, Andrew explains his role from an internal communications perspective too. “It’s ensuring that employees understand the mission of the business and what's important to us. That became a bigger part of my job. We were a little bit behind in how we develop people, so we had pretty much a blank canvas, and so that's exciting, because you get to think, ‘Ok, what do we want to do to engage and make 1300 employees better’.Andrew highlights MedPro’s areas of operation, the 5 values that underpin culture and the desire to maintain an entrepreneurial spirit.“We want to be hungry and nimble, while leveraging the scale of our size. We fight against what Warren Buffett calls the ABC of business decline - arrogance, bureaucracy and complacency”. Andrew clarifies MedPro’s approach to hybrid working and the benefit of in-office activity for younger team members. &nbsp;&nbsp; “We think there's value, especially for younger employees, just being in the office. If you're new to a job and you can hear someone in the next cubicle who's been doing this role for many years. To listen to them take a call or deal with a difficult situation and learning through osmosis.”Andrew shares the impact of the hybrid model on talent attraction and retention and gives his advice to candidates interviewing to join the MedPro team. “I think it's, ‘Have you understood the job and been able to contextualize your experience with what the organization is looking for?’ It’s really important to understand the mission of the role rather than the day to day tasks." From an insurance hiring perspective, Andrew encourages industry colleagues to be flexible in searching for the best insurance talent. “It's not one size fits all. We need a lot of tools in the toolkit. Beyond that is having the ability to explain what the organisation is doing and why it does it”Acquired by Berkshire Hathaway in 2005, Andrew concludes, “Being part of the Berkshire family gives us an incredible an advantage. They don't give us top line goals and say, ‘Run your business as if it's your family's only asset for 100 years. Do everything with complete integrity and ask us if you need any help'. That long term mindset underpins everything we do. We will only grow into new segments if we think we can become the industry leader.”Connect with Andrew Booth on LinkedIn or find out more about MedPro GroupThe Insurance Coffee House Podcast is hosted by&nbsp;Nick Hoadley, CEO of&nbsp;Insurance Search.We are a global Insurance Executive Search Consultancy, supporting Insurance and Insurtech businesses to attract and retain the very best insurance talent.Find out more about showcasing your employer brand as a guest on the <a href="https://www.insurance-search.com/podcast"...

““Don't compromise. Too often we're going through a process and have a deadline to get people so you kind of take what's there. There are great folks out there. Never compromise”, says Jamie. “It's all about how strong the talent is that you can attract, develop and nurture.”On the podcast this week, Jamie Yoder shares his career background with the world’s largest consultancy firms. He was Managing Partner, Global Insurance Practice at Diamond before going on to be Insurance Advisory Practice Leader at PwC. “We used to run this fiercest competitor exercise. You'd remove all constraints and ask, ‘How would you build a company that could destroy your current business?’ &nbsp;Through that exercise, people would come up with really fascinating, quite progressive models.”Through his consultancy work with hundreds of insurance executive leaders, Jamie reconnected with a former colleague who was CEO of digital first claims insurtech, Snapsheet. Jamie joined as President of the business in 2018. "It was actually bringing together a lot of the things we always talked about around. About the bionic organization around how humans and machines can interoperate and how that changes business and your operating model.”Jamie explains the three factors that convinced him to join Sapiens in 2021, when the opportunity to lead growth in North America presented itself. Sapiens is one of the largest insurance technology providers of core systems and core foundational capabilities that insurers need. Headquartered in Israel, Sapiens benefits from an exceptional pool of global talent. 5,000 team members across the world, with 1200 in North America. “We are a very strong global organization. &nbsp;We get to tap into real skill sets locally but such an incredibly strong talent pool in Israel and a very large team in India, our fastest growth area.”Jamie emphasizes how to build high-performing teams and attract the very best talent to the insurance industry. “The war for talent means you have to attract strong technologists and strong business people to insurance.What I found in my insurance consulting days, was if we could just get them onto a project, they would realize that the problems that we were working on and what we were trying to achieve was actually some of the most exciting stuff being done.”“Insurance is an information intensive business. Of all the innovations happening around the capture, consumption, interpretation and use of information in new and exciting ways, what better place to be than in an information space.”At its core, it's working with the best people, putting them in a position to work well together. Giving them the tools to collaborate and strengthen is the difference.”Sharing his one recommendation for insurance professionals coming to interview at Sapiens, Jamie says, “Be extremely passionate and energetic about whatever subject you believe is your dream job. I want people who are super excited. Attitude is everything.” Jamie advises those looking to hire exceptional insurance talent to take a long view."I wouldn't do it just because you have certain targets. Often, we fall prey to that because you get what you're measured for and sometimes we don't measure the right things.”As for the one lesson his career has taught him, he wants everyone to learn. “Look at those things that can stretch you. Find people that help stretch you. Have a continuous thirst for learning and getting something from every person around you.I’ve had the great fortune of getting to work with amazing talent, a very diverse set of people and I’ve learned something from every one of them.”Connect with Jamie Yoder on LinkedIn or find out more about how <a href="https://sapiens.com/" rel="noopener...

“We’ve set ourselves ambitions to have 40% of women in leadership by 2025. You've got to do a lot over many years. It is not a short term change. We've got a range of programs throughout the employee life cycle", says Rachel. "For us it's not just about diversity. It's also about inclusion. We want to make sure we have less than 5% variation in people's sense of belonging no matter what part of the business they come from or their gender, race, ethnicity, disability status.” QBE North America’s Chief People Officer highlights her early career in transformation and change in FMCG and banking, before joining QBE 14 years ago.&nbsp; “Coming from a change management background, I saw that the insurance industry was ripe for transformation. It was a deliberate choice to step into insurance. It's been an exciting place to be.” Rachel shares the variety of roles she’s held and the move from her native Australia to heading up the insurance business’ people function in New York. With 3000 team members in North America, Rachel gives insight in to QBE’s North America’s core product lines – Specialty, Commercial and Crop – as well some of the cultural differences in a business operating across the globe. “Headquartered globally in Sydney, my prior roles were global, so I'm used to working with the differences that a global organisation needs to navigate to be successful.”Rachel outlines QBE’s Employee Value Proposition. “We asked ourselves, ‘why do people want to come work with us? Why do they want to stay with us?’ We took a really employee centric approach to answering those questions. We now have an Employee Promise as we like to call it.&nbsp; For us it's around three major areas. Being the right size, building momentum and the power of ‘We’.”She shares the drive and desire within the organization to empower and develop women at all levels of the business. From interns and campus programmes to Women in Agriculture and Julie Wood’s appointment as the first female CEO of the North America business. In terms of interview advice for insurance executives coming for interview, Rachel says, “This is around authenticity. We want to know who you are. Bring your best self to work, share who you are and what makes you unique and special.”For that to happen, Rachel believes it’s key for insurance hiring managers to make candidates feel comfortable in an interview. &nbsp;Rachel emphasizes what QBE look for when partnering with an executive search business . She shares the partnership the business has with Workday to support HR processes around the globe. As for the one lesson her career has taught her, Rachel concludes, “Love what you do. We spend so much of our time at work. You’ve got be fulfilled by what you do. When you love what you do and put your passion into it, you'll normally shine.” Connect with Rachel Pollack on LinkedIn or find out more about QBE North America.The Insurance Coffee House Podcast is hosted by Nick Hoadley, CEO of Insurance Search. Insurance Search is a global Executive Search Consultancy, supporting Insurance and Insurtech businesses with Critical Hires, Executive Search and Market Intelligence Services. To discuss identifying &amp; attracting the very best...

“Our M&amp;A work has been tremendous. We have sought out companies that we believe fit our culture. &nbsp;You don't grow as rapidly as we have without having a strong M&amp;A presence.We love to find entrepreneurs who care about their employees and want to grow their business. If you acquire the right type of leader and then they refer to a friend or someone else they do business with, that helps have alignment. 70% of our acquisitions have come through referrals”, says Jeff as he highlights PCF’s approach to M&amp;A activity and the power of referrals. On the podcast this week, Jeff shares his career background and transition in to the insurance sector. From senior people roles with brands including Ancestry.com and Mastercard, Jeff joined PCF Insurance Services as VP of HR in November 2021. The fastest growing company in Utah for 3 consecutive years, PCF has grown from 700 employees to over 3500 since Jeff joined the business. “Integration is key. The one thing that we value so much is the human interaction or the relationships that get built. We bring our partners together twice a year and spend a lot of time networking. We talk about culture, who we are and what we value.” Jeff shares what he believes insurance people leaders need to be doing to attract more talent in to the insurance industry, He discusses PCF’s drive to hire for traits not for experience when it comes to talent attraction. "It's one of the best kept secrets out there. I don't know why we're not yelling from the rooftops about careers in insurance because there’s incredible opportunities and great people.”“Insurance is a career path that young people don't know enough about. I really think that we have an opportunity to think about the person. I love finding someone who is just great at service, great with people and seems very detail oriented. If they are, let's give them an opportunity.”Jeff gives insight in to selecting an external search partner and the one lesson his career has taught him, he wants everyone else to know. “It's all about one team, one goal. It's on my walls in my home. It's in my office. My team knows it. The lesson I've learned is look, you can't do it alone.”Jeff clarifies the team's approach to work life balance. "Work should be fun. There should be balance. I've always said that when you're on vacation, I want you on vacation. But it's a people business and when people need you, we want to be there.”He highlights what he looks for when recruiting senior insurance leaders in to the business. “Talk about your people. If we spend 10 minutes with a leader and they don't talk about their team and the people they lead, they're probably not a fit for us. I'm not hiring them as an individual contributor. I'm hiring them as a leader."Find out more about PCF Insurance Services or connect with Jeff Hutchins on LinkedInThe Insurance Coffee House Podcast is hosted by Nick Hoadley, CEO of Insurance Search. Insurance Search is a global Executive Search Consultancy, supporting Insurance and Insurtech businesses with Critical Hires, Executive Search and Market Intelligence Services. To discuss identifying &amp; attracting the very best insurance talent to your team or being a guest on the Insurance Coffee House Podcast, reach out to Nick via&nbsp;<a href="mailto:[email protected]" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

“There's been hundreds, if not thousands, of people that have said that, ‘this will never work’. I probably called 50 body shops just doing research.&nbsp; 40 to 45 of them said, ‘Absolutely not’. But there were five shops that said, ‘Absolutely. This is a process that I’d use. Just from that small kernel, I went all in”, says Brad. Brad talks through his career journey from working on HBO shows Sex in the City and The Sopranos to founding claims insurtech, Snapsheet. In fact it was a highly frustrating insurance claims experience following a car wreck that gave him the idea of digitizing the claims process. “I originally built a business to consumer two-sided marketplace. I was walking the streets of Chicago putting flyers on cars that had dents and scratches. I was walking into body shops, convincing them of a new customer acquisition strategy of how they could get leads online through my platform. And I was able to raise some seed funding and I was off to the races.”Brad talks about building out the tech, the products Snapsheet offer as well as the benefits on offer to both policyholders and insurance businesses. “Our platform is highly configurable. It’s easy to launch, easy to scale. You can build out workflows in real time. It's a lower cost solution that's super lightweight that's built in the cloud that's built on the newest technology. The result of building something new with new technology is that we've been able to automate essentially everything from first notice of loss all the way through to paying out the claim. It allows insurance carriers to scale by having their people focus on really difficult claims that need more time and energy.”Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Chicago, the business now works with other 100 insurance carriers and has grown to a team of over 600. Brad discusses international expansion plans and building a remote team. &nbsp;“When I started the business, I wanted everyone in the office. I'm going to build the best office culture. We had all the same stuff that other tech companies had. I thought it was impossible to replicate that in a virtual world.I had a lot of folks come to me and say, ‘Brad, we could do this from home. It would allow us to hire nationally and get the best talent across the country versus just in Chicago.I made a deal with them and said, ‘OK, I'll send you home and if you can prove to me that you're as efficient for two weeks straight, then I'm in. &nbsp;Actually, they were more productive.”Brad emphasizes the impact a geographically diverse team has on building culture and how the business engages with the pockets of ‘Snapsters’ in major metropolitan cities around the United States. Giving his advice to senior leaders coming to interview at Snapsheet, Brad says, "Be yourself. We try to be overly transparent when we're hiring. No one wants to set the wrong expectation. You don't want to have somebody leave their job thinking something is going to be one thing and when they get there, it’s not. It's not good for the new employee and it's not good for the company. Be yourself, ask a lot of questions.”Brad concludes by explaining the benefiting of building a team with diversity of thought and personalities. “It takes a village to build a company.&nbsp; Early on, I tried to hire people that thought like me and that's a recipe for failure. What I've learned over time is you want different personalities. It's OK to disagree.”"Even my management team, 90% of the time pushes back on what I think. It doesn't mean that they're right. The fact that they're comfortable and willing to challenge what I'm saying, helps us build better technology and get to the right answer. No one knows everything.”Connect with Brad Weisberg on LinkedIn or find out more

“Development has been a hot topic for us. We’ve launched our first programme for our more junior members of the team. A series of learning sessions about Mosaic, about Lloyds, about the marketplace, about the insurance industry in general”, says Claire. &nbsp;“The beauty of being part of an organisation with great growth plans is that we want to make sure that our younger members of the team can grow with us and that there are opportunities for them.”Claire shares her career trajectory – from 10 years with Accenture in to the insurance industry. She gives insight in to her HR and people leadership roles with some of the best-known insurance brands – WTW and Gallagher – and the opportunity to drive the culture and people agenda at Mosaic Insurance. Launched in 2021, Mosaic is a global speciality insurer, headquartered in Bermuda operating from Lloyd’s of London with hubs in the US, Canada, Germany, UAE and Singapore. “We're looking to hit the $500 million worth of gross written premium this year. It’s a real accelerated growth story from a standing start during a very difficult time.”Claire highlights the bold, entrepreneurial culture that has driven the growth. “It's an easy thing to say, but our culture is a critical part of our model and our growth story. Our co-CEOs recently said that Mosaic doesn't have a culture. It is a culture.”“We write proprietary business. Our model means that we are underwriters for underwriters. When clients and partners are trusting you to deploy their capital in that way, it's very important that they trust the expertise and the partnership they have with us and our people.” Claire goes on to explain the ownership model, where all colleagues receive an equity stake in the business. “It leads to an alignment of everyone’s interest and purpose.” Claire emphasizes the three core values of being bold, working together and having fun. “It's incredibly important that they can see what the Mosaic culture is, what a Mosaic person is and our three core values shine through every day. If you're looking for a structured 9 to 5 day, Mosaic is not the place for you. It’s a very empowering place. We aspire to be very entrepreneurial. We want to identify ourselves in a unique way.”Claire gives her advice to senior insurance leaders coming for interview “Do your homework and understand our model. Really Understand what we're trying to be and how we are intending to be different, the growth plans we have. This is a roll your sleeves up kind of organisation.”She shares her thought on how insurance industry people leaders can attract high-performers in to their respective organisations and discusses her mantra of ‘attitude over aptitude’. As for two key lessons her career journey has taught her, Claire says“When something doesn't go your way and you're angry and we want to have a bit of a rant, write it and save it. Come back and reread it or even sleep on it. Then either send it or reword it. I would bet that often you'll just delete it. My second is, ‘it's good to talk’. Sometimes it's so much easier and much more efficient to get things done by just tapping someone on a shoulder or calling them up.”In conclusion, Claire urges us to embrace change. “Life, careers and organisations, they're not a straight line. If you embrace change and take risk, then you can reap rewards. There can be some exciting outcomes. Be brave and be bold to coin some phrases from Mosaic.”Connect with Claire Eeles on LinkedIn or find out more about Mosaic Insurance. The Insurance Coffee House Podcast is hosted by <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-hoadley-78a498143" rel="noopener...

“In that early stage, you really have to leverage your network and those around you who have done it before. Because they're only advisors, they can only go so far. It's kind of wild in that first year of having nothing and creating everything. You have to trust your instincts”, says Lauri.She shares her journey from growing up in a family of entrepreneurs through to joining Pie Insurance at its launch. Lauri gives insight in to her discussions with Co-Founder John Swigart and the vision for building the team in those early days. “The idea of making something much more accessible affordable and easier to understand for small business owners was a mission that I could rally around. But I shared with John, ‘Why don't you call me in six months to a year?’He said no for two reasons. He said he wanted to surround himself with a team that he trusted. The second reason was he and Dax (Co-Founders) were committed to getting the culture and the hiring right from the outset and they were willing to make the investment to do so.”Year one was spent establishing the core HR functions of the insurance business and recruiting from their networks. With 2 employees on day 1 in 2017, the business now has over 400 pie-oneers and has expanded from Workers’ Comp to offer Commercial Auto Insurance, General Liability and Business Owners Insurance. “We wanted to make sure the individuals we were bringing in, understood the business, understood what it was like to join an early stage start up because it's not for everyone.”Lauri highlights how being a remote-first business impacts culture. “It's definitely a dichotomy a lot of companies face. On the one hand, being purely remote gives you access to much of the talent across the US. But it also has the challenge of building a culture.”“You have to have a fantastic on-boarding program. How you set up your new team members for success on day one, those first six months is everything. But it’s important to have some live collaboration. We don't believe it should be 100% remote all the time.”Lauri discusses the investment in tech to facilitate communication as well as the complexities of supporting team members based across different States. She gives her advice to candidates coming to interview and shares her thoughts on best practice for fellow people leaders across the insurance industry. “You have to have a very thorough and tight talent process. You have to execute it similarly across the business. We do competency-based interviewing. We prep all of our interview panels before we interview and then we debrief together as a group. That ensures that everyone is on the same page going into and leaving the process.”To drive their insurance careers forward, Lauri encourages people to be integrative thinkers. “Something that's helped me be successful in my career is being an integrative thinker. It’s not looking at a problem as ‘I've got path A or B’ as the solution. It’s considering all of the perspectives and all of the needs and ‘how do I solve for that that greater needs set’.Lauri shares the importance of working with an Executive Search firm that understands the business culture and calibrates with their recruitment needs. She concludes by sharing the value of mentoring and leveraging your insurance network. “I don't have all the answers and I'm not supposed to. I have points of view and perspectives but I hold them loosely. I try to take in other perspectives that will refine my views on things. If your early in your career, don't ever give up on your network and cultivating it.Connect with Lauri Putt Needleman on LinkedIn or find out more about Pie InsuranceThe Insurance Coffee House...

“Statistics show that productivity and the delivery of innovation is much higher with diversity in your teams. I'm passionate about really helping people think about it bigger than just gender or race. It’s diversity of thought”, says Sandy. “A few weeks ago, the new Head of our Global Risk Analytics team was observing a group going through a presentation. It wasn't just pages being put together and somebody talking through each slide, they were really debating what they were bringing to the client. It was watching diversity of thought in action.”Sandy charts her early career journey from banking through the non-profit sector to her current role at Aon, and the common theme of workforce transformation and change management through each role. “I've always looked at leadership and how we make workforce decisions for people. People are my passion and helping them find pleasure and purpose in their work.”Sandy emphasizes how the insurance industry needs to do a better job of attracting talent. "If you think about reinsurance from a training perspective, it really is three renewal cycles before someone really understands the nuances. For the generation that's rising, that's a long time. We have to do a better job of creating excitement and a value proposition of what this insurance career journey could be. We have to tell the insurance story better.”Sandy gives insight in to her Global Chief People Officer role overseeing 3400 reinsurance colleagues and an additional 500 in the Strategy &amp; Technology group. She highlights the importance of innovative leadership at a time of incredible global change and stresses the key role inclusivity plays in developing diverse insurance leaders across the business. “There's gender, there's ethnicity and there's also perspective and socioeconomic differences. Having an inclusive diverse team is super important. The segmentation strategy we have has really been key to bringing more opportunities for diverse leaders to be given their voice and learning how to lead across the firm.”Sharing the dramatic impact using Textio in job adverts has had on creating a more diverse candidate pool, Sandy demonstrates how it’s used on wider marketing and people manager training to ensure talent retention in the face of rising private-equity backed competition. “Retaining talent in reinsurance with the explosion of these disruptors that are coming in. There are not just two or three main reinsurance brokers anymore. We've got some emerging private equity firms backing the development of firms to compete against us and a lot of what they're selling is the opportunity to build something. But I will always say if you really want to be the best at what you do for your clients, Aon has invested in the tools and technologies.”Sandy gives her advice to insurance executives coming to interview at Aon as well as how insurance industry people leaders can build the best teams for their organizations. “We’re all trying to build the best team for our clients and for our organization. As someone who is trying to serve the people, you want it to be a good fit, a win-win. When I lose people to a competitor, this is a small world here and it's really important that we exit as respectfully as we enter.”Sandy concludes with the one lesson her job has taught her that she thinks everyone should know. “People matter in a way that you don't realize. Our words are impactful. We all create a culture. It's not just the leaders, we're all responsible for that. We spend so much time at work. It's really important to me that people enjoy what they do and they enjoy the people they're with. It's up to us to develop a culture where all people can grow and feel connected and be valued, seen and heard.”Connect with Sandy Locke on LinkedIn

“I am a big believer in continuous learning, in cultures that are rich in performance feedback so that people know how they're doing, what they could be doing better and what they need to focus on in their development”, says Amy.A first generation college student, Amy describes her multi-industry career journey from Case New Holland through consultancy and in to the insurance sector.&nbsp; She describes her senior HR roles at AON and Gallagher and explains what attracted her to join HUB International as Chief Human Resources Officer in January 2023. “It's a business that I love, it's an industry that I love and HUB was an exciting opportunity for me to figure out where we go next with HR, to support where the business is headed. We are celebrating our 25th anniversary this year. We have been so successful through a very strong acquisition model. We're just getting started. It's exciting to be able to think about all the experiences I've had and how I leverage them to really change the way we're going to do things in HR and support the way the business is changing.With 18,000 employees and $4bn revenues, the company operates in the US, Canada and Puerto Rico. “We have six super regions and then underneath we have all of our hubs.”Amy highlights her passion for talent development and career development, explaining how she wants to offer people the chance to move between the spectrum of business functions within the insurance sector. “One of the things in many insurance companies is there seems to be a little bit of a separation between the sales people or the producers and the servicing team. There's a huge opportunity to help people see that all roles within insurance are valuable and give the opportunity to move between them. That would be really exciting.”Amy discusses recruiting talent, providing a career path and the importance of leadership development. &nbsp; "It feels like the biggest opportunity is really around talent development. How do we create better leaders and make sure our managers have the skills they need to lead teams in a way that creates engagement and creates loyalty. And then for employees, how do we allow people to pursue different careers? How do we help them understand the possibilities?”She emphasizes how newly acquired businesses and colleagues are embedded in to the organization. “When we acquire organizations, we fold them into those hubs or if they're large enough, they create their own hub. As a leader or as an employee, you're going to have a much richer experience joining a company like HUB. People that join us through acquisition have the opportunity to grow their career in a very different way because in a smaller agency, there are only a certain number of roles.”Amy talks about leading the people function at a decentralized organization. “We've got 35 teams of HR professionals doing things 35 times in 35 ways. The opportunity is not to change that structure. The opportunity is to solve things like onboarding or leadership development at the enterprise level. If we have standardization of these types of things, it allows for more innovation locally.”Amy shares her advice to senior leaders coming to interview at HUB. “Do your homework. Understand and value where we've been as a company, because where we've been is what's made us so successful. And think about how would you be able to capitalize on the history and the culture to propel us in the future.” She encourages fellow insurance industry HR professionals to have a good pulse on what the next generation of talent are looking for in their careers“It's very different from what many of us who have been in the workforce for a while would be expecting. They’re looking for where they're going to be developed. They want to be a part of organizations that have a bigger mission than just insurance.”Amy concludes by...

“It's difficult to launch an EVP. It's something that has to be felt and experienced through those employee lifecycle touch points”, says Faye. “If you come back and say, ‘this is us now, this is what we are’, it’s not going to land well if it differs from what you are currently. Authenticity is key but also to factor in an aspirational component.” Faye shares how she fell in to the insurance industry with a claims role at Aon over the option of going to university through to her current position as Head of Talent Acquisition at Markel International. Operating out of the UK, she discusses building a talent acquisition team across Markel International’s hubs in Europe, Asia and Canada. Faye emphasizes her passion for creating a strong culture and shares the journey Markel went on with an external agency to review both its brand and EVP.&nbsp;&nbsp; “The most obvious thing that kept coming out was that we are a people orientated organisation with a really strong culture. A lot of that is testament to something that was created by a former chairman back in 1986 before we went public.&nbsp; What was important for us when going through this process and developing an employee value proposition was to ensure that anything that came out of that was derived from the Markel style.”She highlights the Markel culture, what it means across the organisation and the role it plays in attracting the best talent. "Unless you can effectively communicate who you are as an organisation, what you stand for, what your culture looks like, it's very difficult to attract and retain talent.”Faye explains the impact that digital and social media channels have on the presentation of the EVP. "When you're thinking about ways that you present yourself in a digital format, you have to come up with a more creative and succinct way of presenting yourselves. We came up with the EVP, which is ‘Play your part in something special’. That's the tagline. It's then supported by a narrative, that brings it to life.”Faye discusses how HR and People leaders can attract the best talent to their organisations and the importance of selecting an external search partner with aligned values. She highlights the age and gender neutralizing technology Markel are using to underpin recruitment.&nbsp;&nbsp; “All of our job descriptions and job adverts are run through that technology. It assesses the language and highlights key words that could be construed as discriminating from an age or gender perspective.”Faye showcases the work Markel have done around recruitment standards. “We wanted to develop an interactive document that hiring managers could dip in and out of. It outlines best practice and is&nbsp; written through a diversity and inclusion lens. It covers things like creating inclusive job descriptions, legislation wherever you are in any of our global spaces, talent attraction methods and the importance of shortlisting against a predetermined set of criteria.”Faye concludes by highlighting how wildcard candidates are supporting DEI.&nbsp; “You present as many CVs that match 100% of the hiring manager’s requirements. But also one that only matches 75%, an individual that comes from a different educational background or a different industry, someone they wouldn't necessarily have looked at. It doesn't mean that you're going to employ that individual, but what it does is create and encourage diversity of thought.”Connect with Faye Kennedy on LinkedIn or find out more about Markel International The Insurance Coffee House Podcast is hosted by <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-hoadley-78a498143" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

“We are very proud of our legacy and where we've come from. We're also really excited to evolve into a more contemporary, consumer focused, compassionate, purpose driven company”, says Stacey as she highlights Guardian’s aim to support consumers through a framework of mind, body and wallet. "Inspiring well-being enables us to think differently about the kinds of products and services we provide. During the pandemic it became really clear that mental health was a huge challenge across not just the United States but across the world. Opening up our purpose to inspire wellbeing allows us to think about all the other ways that we can help consumers.”Stacey tells of her journey from Lawyer at GE, specializing in M&amp;A activity, moving in to labor &amp; employment law, through to taking her first HR role and balancing motherhood.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; "The switch to labor and employment was a big turning point in terms of my career. It gave me a lens into all things talent, people and culture, what issues were being presented and how to solve those issues. I was asked to move into an HR job and I said ‘no’ a couple of times and then I was offered a pretty compelling HR role. I made the switch and I've never looked back.” &nbsp;Stacey discusses her talent management role for the entire colleague experience lifecycle, overseeing 8,000 colleagues in the US and 2000 in India at the 160-year old Mutual insurance business. “Beyond talent, it's also culture. It's making sure we have an inclusive and consumer centric culture, and we are doing the things that enable our colleagues to live their best lives and fulfil the purpose of the organisation.”Stacey emphasizes how Guardian are empowering compassionate leaders, the organization’s hybrid workforce strategy and her dislike of the phrase ‘work-life balance’. "We’ve spent some time really figuring out what makes you successful as a leader at Guardian. One of the success factors is to be able to connect both internally and externally with empathy and compassion. There’s been a lot of talk in the past few years about the importance of empathy as a leadership trait. But empathy by itself, without compassion is not as impactful. Compassion is really about listening and then doing something about it.”“Work is part of life, like family is part of life, like friends are part of life. Your spirituality, your community, it's all part of life. For a compassionate leader, it's understanding that we all live and work in this ecosystem that has a lot of different components to it.”She shares her advice for leaders coming for interview, encouraging people to tell stories and demonstrate impact. To attract the best talent, Stacey encourages her HR peers to embrace interviewing diversity“Make sure the people doing the interviewing bring diversity of experience, thought, gender and race. A panel that brings the same thinking isn’t going to bring in the very best talent.I would also say, focus on skills versus experiences. The ability for someone to learn influencing skills, for example, can happen in a multitude of different environments and industries. It doesn't necessarily mean they have to have come from an insurance company.”As for the one lesson her job has taught her, she thinks everyone should know. "Find your passion and be open to your passion being in some place that's unexpected. That can be in the work you do. It could be in the purpose you deliver, the colleagues you surround yourself with. You have to think about it in a multitude of different ways.”Connect with Stacey Hoin on LinkedIn or find out more about career opportunities at Guardian The Insurance Coffee House Podcast is...

“People do not apply for agency owner opportunities. The way that you find candidates is definitely by hunting. Referrals is our number one source”, says Regan. “Going to current agency owners and asking for referrals is critical. We have sales leaders that are in the community. Being in the community is critical.”&nbsp;Regan charts his own career journey from Deloitte accountant in to the insurance sector. Inspired by his father-in-law, Regan talks through his experience of owning his own Insurance Agency before moving in to an in-house Talent Acquisition role. “The success of my agency was dependent upon my ability to do the work and I wasn't afraid to do the work. I'm a big believer in systems processes. It is about managing your sales pipeline and your funnel.” Highlighting American Family Insurance’s history and growth over the past 10 years to being a Fortune 300 company with $14.5bn in revenue, Regan shares the current distribution model and the importance of financial strength as a Mutual Insurance company.“We've purchased, acquired and merged with several companies and have many ways that we distribute insurance. We have exclusive and independent agency owners. We have partners like Progressive, Geico and Costco and then we've got direct to consumer.”“We’re not publicly traded. Financial strength is critical so that we can be there when our customers need us.” Regan discusses hiring 3000 people in to the organization and how his own experience helps in recruiting 250 exclusive agency owners. &nbsp;Regan outlines the benefits of being an agency owner, the support on offer and the traits he looks for in those that are considering that option. “Our goal is that within a five year period, 60 to 70% of our agency owners are successful financially. An agency owner has to be willing to do what it takes to start a business. We will be in their corner and support them as much as they allow us to support them.”“Grit is probably the number one factor I'm looking and folks that are willing to stay true to the process. Some of our most successful agency owners were former teachers. The reason teachers are good is because insurance is not about selling to people. It is about teaching and educating.” Regan concludes by sharing his love for talent acquisition and the opportunity he has to impact people’s lives. “Whether it's an agency owner or an employee, this should be a life changing experience. I think sometimes in talent acquisition we think they're just swapping that job for this job. We’re not making widgets, we are changing people's lives.” Connect with Regan Fackrell on LinkedIn, email [email protected] or find out more about American Family Insurance The Insurance Coffee House Podcast is hosted by Nick Hoadley, CEO, Insurance Search, the Executive Search Consultancy for growing Insurance and Insurtech businesses around the globe.To discuss identifying &amp; attracting the very best talent to your team or being a podcast guest, reach out to Nick via&nbsp;[email protected] Copyright&nbsp;Insurance&nbsp;<a href="https://insurance-search.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer"